State junior Legion baseball roundup: Granite Falls rolls past Rushford

GRANITE FALLS — While being the away team on the scoreboard, Granite Falls played spoiler to its guest at Richter Field.

The host team of the Division II Junior American Legion State Baseball Tournament, Granite Falls got an opening-day win, beating Rushford 4-1 in the quarterfinals Friday.

With the victory, Granite Falls takes on Morris in the championship semifinals at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Rushford faces Esko in the consolation semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

A three-run top of the second inning blew things open for Granite Falls.

After Hayden Kuehn legged out an infield single that pulled Rushford’s catcher out of position, Jacob Peterson took off for home and scored the game’s opening run. Then with two outs, a Drew Almich single brought home Kuehn and Gunnar Fagan to make it 3-0.

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Gage Wilke added an insurance run in the third with an RBI single.

Along with the two-run single, Almich got the win on the mound. He struck out three in a complete-game victory.

Jonah Bunke drove in Rushford’s lone run in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly that scored Zach Baker.

Granite Falls 031 000 0-4 8 4Rushford 000 010 0-1 5 2Hitting - Granite Falls: Drew Almich 1-3 rbi-2 bb, Connor Fagen 2-4 2b r, Gage Wilke 2-4 rbi, Jacob Peterson 1-3 2b r hbp sb, Hayden Kuehn 1-4 r rbi, Gunnar Fagen 1-3 r bb … Rushford: Jonah Bunke 0-3 rbi hbp, Caden Johnson 1-3, Evan Kammerer 1-3, Creighton Hoiness 1-3, Zach Baker 1-3 r, Conner Vaughn 1-3 Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) - Granite Falls: Almich (W) 7-5-1-0-0-3 … Rushford: Johnson (L) 2-3-3-1-0-2, Rylan Schnieder 1-2-1-1-0-3, Cayden Lea 4-3-0-0-4-4

Down 2-1 to Esko, an error in the top of the fifth allowed Morris to score a pair of runs and take a 3-2 lead. That score held, allowing Morris to come away with a victory at Richter Field.

Riley Asmus and Landen Gibson accounted for four of Morris’ seven hits. Asmus went 2-for-4 with a run. Gibson was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Esko’s top hitter was Jace Koskala. He was 2-for-3 with a double, a run and an RBI.

Morris 001 020 0-3 7 0Esko 020 000 0-2 4 2Hitting - Morris: Riley Asmus 2-4 r, Landen Gibson 2-4 2b rbi, Ozzy Jerome 0-4 rbi-2 sb, Jack Kehoe 1-4, Jonah Huebner 1-2 r, Alex Asmus 1-3 r… Esko: Jamis Halverson 1-4, Leo Luense 0-1 r bb-2, Jace Koskala 2-3 2b r rbi, Sam Panger 1-2 hbp sbPitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) - Morris: Not available … Esko: Jackson Peterson (L) 7-7-3-1-1-5

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Luverne’s Carter Sehr struck out 12 and held Le Sueur-Henderson to three hits in a shutout victory at Richter Field.

Maddux Domagala and Layke Miller each had three hits for Luverne. Domagala was 3-for-3 with two RBIs, a run and two stolen bases. Miller went 3-for-4 with a double, a run and an RBI. Landyn Lais added a pair of hits for Luverne.

John Karels finished 2-for-3 with a double for Le Sueur-Henderson.

Luverne faces Montevideo in the championship semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday. L-H takes on Parkers Prairie at 3 p.m. Saturday in the consolation semifinals.

Luverne 100 026 0-9 11 0L-H 000 000 0-0 3 2Hitting - Luverne: Blake Sauer 1-4 2b r rbi bb sb, Alex Schlosser 1-4, Carter Sehr 0-3 r bb sb, Landyn Ahrendt 1-2 bb-2, Jaxon Lais 0-4 r, Landyn Lais 2-3 r-2 rbi, Layke Miller 3-4 2b r rbi, Marcus Vortherms 0-2 r bb hbp, Maddux Domagala 3-3 r rbi-2 sb-2, Josh Hansen 0-0 r … L-H: Carter Wilke 1-3 sb, John Karels 2-3 2bPitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) - Luverne: Sehr (W) 7-3-0-0-2-12 … L-H: Peyton Tellijohn (L) 5.1-9-6-5-1-5, Logan Fahey 0.1-1-3-2-3-0, Colton Wilson 1.1-1-0-0-1-2

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