Sr. Babe Ruth drops & ties league games at Evansville

Barnesville’s Senior Babe Ruth team were downed by Brandon/Evansville 6-4 in the first game of a league doubleheader.  Game two ended in a 5-5 tie when rain suspended play.  

Tuesday, July 21
GAME 1
Barnesville traveled to Evansville to play a young, but solid B/E team and could only muster 5 hits in a 6-4 loss.  Jack Wahl (2-3, 1 RBI) doubled to start the game, stole second was followed by a walk to Adrian O’Brien (0-1, 1 R, 3 BB, 2 SB).  Wahl would score on a passed ball and Matt Samuelson’s RBI ground out would plate O’Brien and give the visitors a quick 2-0 lead.  B/E evened the score in the bottom of the inning on two errors and the B’ville bats went quiet until the last inning.  A 2 run rally was cut short as Barnesville would leave the bases loaded with one out and not score again.  Barnesville left 13 men on base in the contest.  Sam Askegaard (5.2 Inn, 5 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 6 Ks) pitched well and only gave up 1 earned run as the defense committed 4 costly errors.  Barnesville record fell to 7-3 with the loss.

GAME 2
Barnesville squandered a 5-0 lead and B/E fought back with 5 runs in the final two innings before rain ended the contest.  Matt Haugrud (3 Inn, 1 H, 0 R, 4 Ks) pitched a strong game before giving way to Travis Affield (2 Inn, 4 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 Ks).  Affield was an out away in earning the save when 2 costly errors allowed B/E to tie the game.  Barnesville would walk 9 times and mixed in 5 hits, but again left too many on base (14) in attempting to split the contest.  O’Brien (1-1, 1 R, 2 RBI), Samuelson (1-3, 2B, SF, 1 RBI), Affield (1-1), Noah Krause (1-1, 2B, 1R) and Peyton Pauna (1-1, 1 R, 1 RBI) were the offensive leaders.

Jr. Babe Ruth defeats DGF 5-4
Wednesday, July 22
Noah Krause and Peyton Pauna combined to pitch Barnesville’s Junior Babe Ruth team to a 5-4 win in Dilworth.  Krause (3 Innings, 4 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB) and Pauna (4 Inn, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB) combined for 14 strike outs, each fanning 7 DGF batters.  A Barnesville error in the 3rd inning allowed 3 unearned runs, as only 1 run was earned by the home team.  At the plate, Barnesville outhit DGF 11-7 and were led by Joaquin Nelson’s 3 singles.  All 11 hits for Barnesville were singles.  Bryce Krueger (2-4), Travis Affield (2-4) and Krause (2-4) each had multiple hits, while Max Olson was 1-1 and plated 2 RBI.

Sr. Babe Ruth loses to Ashby 4-2

Friday, July 24
Barnesville (7-3-1) hosted Ashby (8-4) on a hot and windy evening at Reed Field.  Due to the high temps and heat index, a scheduled doubleheader turned into a single 7 inning league game.   Ashby boasts one of the top players in the state in Jaden Norby, a UND football commit for 2021.  Additionally, the Ashby team won the MN State Babe Ruth (14-15 yr olds) in 2018.    Norby (2 Innings, 2 H, 1 R, 5 Ks) closed out the game for Ashby in relief of his younger brother Hunter (5 Innings, 4 H, 1 R, 11 Ks), who was equally impressive on the mound in earning the win. 

In front of a big home town crowd that was a part of Youth Baseball Night, the home team battled and took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd inning when Caleb Ott’s bases loaded walk plated Adrian O’Brien (2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI).   Ashby knotted the score in the fifth and tacked on 3 runs behind 3 hits in the sixth.  Barnesville mounted a rally in the seventh behind two out base hits and great hustle on the bases by Jackson Wahl and O’Brien, before Norby recorded the 16th strikeout of the game.

Barnesville (8-4-1 Overall, 7-4-1 League) will close out the regular season this week with a road game at Dilworth on Monday, followed by home doubleheaders contests against Hawley on Tuesday and Pelican Rapids on Friday.   Friday will be Senior Night and Barnesville’s senior players will be recognized before the game.  The league tournament will be played in Pelican Rapids beginning on August 6th.