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Otter Baseball Team Comes From Behind to Top Lakers 4-3

By Kevin Pearson, 05/28/19, 11:00PM CDT

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The Fergus Falls Otter baseball team got off to a good start in the postseason as they recorded a 4-3 come-from-behind win against Detroit Lakes in the first round of the Section 8AAA playoffs Tuesday night. With the victory, the Otters earn the right to face top-seeded Alexandria Wednesday at 4:30 at Knute Nelson Field in Alexandria.

 

The Otter bats were stifled most of the night, but they came alive in the last two frames.  After the Lakers had scored 3 unearned runs off Fergus pitcher Brock Kotschevar, the Otters found themselves down to their last two at bats. With two out in the 6th, Cole Fronning hit a line drive base hit to center field. Cole Knudson came up and hit a 1-0 fastball over the left field fence for his first home run of the year to close the gap to one run.

Kotschevar got the Otters back into the dugout with a nice 1-2-3 inning to set the stage for the rest of the comeback.  Down to their last at bat, the Otters struck again.  Kotschevar singled to start the rally. Jack Baker laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance courtesy runner Michael Maanum to second base.  Maanum advanced to third as Michael Wiederich hit a grounder to deep short for an infield single. With runners at first and third, Matthew Scott hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Maanum from third. An errant pickoff throw to first allowed Wiederich to advance all the way to third base.  Abel Aho came up and drove in the go ahead run with a single to left field.

Kotschevar pitched another perfect inning to earn the complete game win. He didn’t allow an earned run or a walk while striking out 7 Laker batters. He threw only 78 pitches and 60 of those were strikes.

“What a great team victory,” commented Head Coach Kevin Pearson of the Otters. “Brock did what he has done all year. He threw strikes and attacked their hitters. We let him down with the three errors, but he kept the damage to a minimum.  Our bats took a while to come to life.  I liked how we were able to score with the long ball in the 6th and we were also able to score by manufacturing runs in the 7th. I was proud how our guys never gave up, and they kept fighting until the end.”