Owatonna VFW Secures Top Seed; Aces Win on Wild Pitch in Tenth Inning

Wednesday night was a good night for Owatonna baseball as the VFW and Aces amateur team earned wins on a warm, windy, humid evening.

Owatonna's VFW team won 11-5 at Red Wing to wrap up the top seed for the district tournament, setting up Post 3723 to host action Saturday at Dartt's Park. Owatonna made their first state tournament appearance a year ago.

The Aces amateur team entertained Northfield on Wednesday at Fuller Field. Brandon Wolf sprinted home from third on a wild pitch with two outs in the 10th inning to get the 7-6 win for the hometown nine. Wolf doubled to open the inning and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

The game saw a couple of lead changes in the middle innings.

Owatonna went up 4-1 with a three-run fourth inning. Mike Randall and Trey Fails drove in runs with singles. Northfield rallied ahead with four in the sixth that forced Aces starter Dan Clore from the game. Owatonna pulled back ahead 6-5 as Fails and Benji Hager knocked in runs. The Knights tied the game with a two-out solo home run in the seventh. Base runners were scarce after that until Owatonna rallied for the win.

Isaac Rocha got the victory on the mound after throwing two innings, striking out three and not allowing a hit. He was the fourth Owatonna pitcher. Riley Thompson took over for Clore in the sixth. Cody Johnson moved from third base coach to pitch one inning.

Northfield was forced to put their manager into the game. The Knights came to town with nine players and one was injured and tried to stay in the game by moving to first base. That worked for an inning. Then the manager, who brought up the average age of his team by a bit, inserted himself at first base and even batted once, advancing a runner to second base with a 10th-inning bunt.

Extra notes: Aces team manager Chris Caldwell, known as CC, will celebrate his birthday Friday and got a round of applause from the crowd. As I was waiting at the concession stand I heard a group of kids quizzing the guy behind the counter about prices and one commented, "Why is it so expensive?" in response to the price of $2.50 for peanuts. As Johnson was jogging out to pitch the eighth, he turned and tossed his phone his phone to a teammate to take into the dugout. Apparently there aren't any Pokemon on the mound at Fuller Field.