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Unseeded Perham continued its state tournament surge with a 3-2 upset victory over Fairmont, the defending Class AA champion. Senior catcher Ben Shumansky was 2 for 4 with an RBI for the Yellowjackets. Junior Nate Soelter and eighth-grader Josh Soelter had two hits each for Fairmont. Perham will now face Esko for the Class AA championship at 1:00pm Friday at CHS Field in St. Paul.
Blaiz Schmidt (6.1IP, 8H, 2ER, 3BB, 7K) was the winning pitcher and Austin Schmelz closed out the victory by retiring the final two batters, one by strikeout, in the seventh inning.
Fairmont led 1-0 after the first inning, however, the Yellowjackets pulled even with a run in the third and then took a 3-1 lead with a pair of fifth inning runs. Fairmont answered with one in the bottom of the fifth.
Hitting leaders for the Yellowjackets were Shumansky (2-4, 2B, RBI), Evan Kovash (1-3, RBI), Gage Aanenson (SF, RBI), Schmidt (1-4, R), Gavin Griffin (1-4, 2B, R) and Schmelz (1-3, 2B).