Sibley East rallied to down Jackson 5-4 in eight innings Friday in the first round of the state Division II American Legion baseball tournament at Redbird Field in Luverne.
The Tarantulas will play Chatfield in a consolation bracket semifinal game at 9 a.m. Saturday. Morris defeated Chatfield 8-2 in the first round.
The other consolation semifinal, scheduled for 11:30 a.m., has Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton playing Luverne. On the other side of the bracket Friday, Tri-Town (Atwater) donwed Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 7-4 and Wadena edged Luverne 1-0 in 15 innings.
Jackson scored four runs with two outs in the bottom of the second inning for a 4-0 lead.
Ben Spaeth scored on a wild pitch and courtesy runner Andrew Boyum (running for catcher Dylan Withers) scored on an error before Payton Handevidt’s plated Damien Phaly and Logan Butzon.
“I got excited when we got up 4-0,” said Jackson Coach Blaise Jacobsen. “Cam (Scholten) was just dealing, doing a great job. They got one on us and they got two on us and Cam hit a couple guys and walked a couple guys. I’m always going to second guess myself if we should have left him in but we have a pretty darn good lefty with Logan Butzon, who was ready to throw.
“That’s how we won our game against St. James. They had three lefties coming up and one of the lefties happened to catch one and hit it over the fence to tie it up. They got a good swing when they needed it and we didn’t respond and they got us on a walk off. Those are tough. Those are the ones that hurt a lot, but it’s still pretty cool to be here. The boys are pretty down but hopefully we can lick our wounds and get back after it and finish strong for the season.”
Sibley East scored single runs in the third and sixth innings before Wolverines’ leadoff hitter Jake Schmidt homered to right field to tie the game with one out to tie the game 4-4. Schmidt was a Class 2A all-state selection, played in the state All-Star Series and was named the Most Valuable Player in the Minnesota River Conference during the spring high school season.
Handevidt had two hits for Post 130. Spaeth, Bryson Powers and Gabe Wolff had one apiece. Dylan Withers reached twice as he walked and was hit by a pitch.
Division II state tournament
At Redbird Field, Luverne
Friday
Quarterfinals
Upper bracket
Sibley East 5, Jackson 4 (8 innings)
Morris 8, Chatfield 2
Tri-Town 7, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 4
Wadena 1, Luverne 0 (15 innings)
Saturday
Consolation semifinals
Jackson vs. Chatfield, 9 a.m.
Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton vs. Luverne, 11:30 a.m.
Consolation championship
Consolation semifinal winners, 2 p.m.
Semifinals
Sibley East vs. Morris, 5 p.m.
Tri-Town vs. Wadena, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday
Third place
Semifinal losers, 11 a.m.
Championship
Semifinal winners. 1:30 p.m.
Tournament notes
There was a combined 43 strikeouts in the final game of the day, Wadena’s 1-0 win over Luverne in 15 innings.
There was a brief delay in the bottom of the 11th inning of that game when the sprinkler system turned on at 10:00 with the winning run on second base for Wadena.
Several Tarantula players who were on Jackson County Central’s state championship wrestling team returned to Jackson after Friday’s game to take part in ‘Gopher Rally Day’ at the Jackson County Fair and then returned to Luverne for Friday night’s opening ceremony at the state tournament.
One of the players for Chatfield is Seth Goetzinger, an undefeated state wrestling champion in 2021. He is young enough to be eligible to play Legion baseball after his freshman season at Augsburg University.
The 2023 state tournament will be along the state’s northern border, Roseau. FWIW, the distance between Luverne and Roseau is 457 miles. The fastest of three routes listed by Google maps by an hour is 6 hours and 35 minutes and takes you through two other states (South Dakota and North Dakota) before bringing you back into Minnesota.