By John George
After struggling through the first month of the summer, the New York Mills American Legion Post 116 won consecutive games last week to improve to 4-7 overall.
Mills snapped a three-game slide with a 6-0 win over Breckenridge last Friday. Jordan Vaughan, Jason Berg and Mike Baune all scored in the first inning to give Post 116 a 3-0 lead. Vaughan and Alex Helmeke took advantage of walks to manufacture a pair of runs in the fourth to extend the lead to 5-0.
Vaughan took advantage of another walk in the sixth and scored on a bases loaded walk for Mills' final score.
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Post 116 made it two in a row on Monday with a 4-2 win over Frazee.
Drew Schultz and David Resch scored in the second for a 2-0 Mills lead. Back-to-back doubles by Resch and Helmeke scored two more in the third to give Mills a 4-0 lead.
Frazee scored one run in the fifth, then scored another in the top of the seventh and had the bases loaded before Luke Tervola shut the door on the comeback. Schultz pitched the first six innings for the win.
Post 116 will close out their regular season on the road. They played at Hawley on Tuesday and will follow that up with games at Frazee (July 16), at D-G-F (July 17) and at Pelican Rapids (July 20).
Perham goes 2-2
The Perham Buzz hosted Bemidji Monday at Krueger Field in a pair of entertaining games, splitting the doubleheader and the season series.
Game one went back-and-forth with Perham finally coming out on top, 10-9. The Buzz trailed 9-5 as they came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. They loaded the bases on three walks before a pair of singles by Nick Stoll and Ben Warne made the score 9-8.
They completed the comeback in the seventh. A.J. Masinas reached and scored on a base hit by Isaac Stoll. As A.J. scored, his younger brother, Herschel, advanced to third and drew a throw from the catcher, which escaped the Bemidji fielder, allowing Herschel to score the game-winner.
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Marcus Hendrickson had a three-run homer in the first inning for the Buzz.
Game two was a pitchers dual, as both teams failed to score through the first six innings. In the top of the seventh, Bemidji loaded the bases with one out, but ran themselves out of the inning after the runner on first was doubled off after a line-drive was caught by Warne at second base.
Perham had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh. Andy Kratzke reached on an error and pinch runner Jonnie Schmitz moved to second on a sac bunt by Eric Weller. A.J. Masinas appeared to get a base hit down the third base line, but the umps ruled the ball was foul. He then lined out to the pitcher and the inning ended on a ground out.
Bemidji then scored twice in the top of the eighth to take the game, 2-0.
Split in Morris
The Buzz played a pair of games at Morris last Friday. They lost the first game to Morris, 9-3. Herschel Masinas went 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored in the loss. Hendrickson and Stoll each drove in a run.
In the second game against Chokio, Perham came out on top, 16-6. The Buzz scored six runs in the first inning, then won the game by 10-run rule after a four-run sixth. Stoll was 4-for-5 with a double and three runs to lead Post 61. Hendrickson, Weller, Tom Baumgart and Anthony Ruther each had two hits in the win as each player on the Buzz had at least one hit as the team collected 16 safeties.
Perham will hit the road this week for a pair of doubleheaders in Thief River Falls today (July 12) and at Crookston on Friday. They play at Frazee on July 18 before returning home on July 19 when they host Fergus Falls at Matt's Field.
