St. Patrick Defeats Faribault Qualifies for State Tournament

St. Patrick Irish pitchers combined to strike out 17 Faribault Lakers batters Monday night in a 5-0 Region 3C Winner's bracket game at Bonin Field.

Left hander Luke Tupy struck out 8 of the first 9 batters he faced and finished after five innings with 13 strikeouts of 18 batters faced.  He allowed 1 hit and walked two batters while throwing 89 pitches, 51 strikes.

Tupy is a redshirt freshman for the St. Cloud State Division II baseball team and he was throwing some serious gas.   The 6'5 195 pound Tupy is from New Prague.  Most of his strikeouts were on high heaters.

Tupy had a terrific 2022 season for the Mavericks appearing in 9 games, all starts with 2 complete games and a 6-1 record.  Statistics for 2022 were 46 innings pitched, 25 hits allowed, 8 runs, 7 earned, Earned Run Average of 1.37 with 76 strikeouts, 12 walks, 7 extra base hits allowed.  Opponent batting average of .154.

Going the final four innings for St. Patrick was a former Minnesota State player Trevor Divinski from Eden Prarie, Mn.  He had 4 strikeouts of 16 batters faced with two hits allowed in my book and no walks.

There was not a single batter in the Lakers lineup that did not strike out against Tupy.  The hardest hit ball off him was probably a line drive right to the center fielder off the bat of Matt Lane in the first inning.

Blake Langerud had a solid opposite field single to notch the only hit against Tupy.

Faribault got a terrific pitching performance from Egan Bonde against a lineup with a couple of other current Minnesota State Mankato players. Jack and Ryan Friedges from Jordan.  Jack is a senior and Ryan a sophomore for the Mavericks.

Bonde issued a one out walk to Jack in the first inning before Ryan smacked a single to place runners at first and second.  Brayden Manning hit a fly ball to left field.  Jack Friedges tried to tag and advance to third base but Jack Jandro threw a bullet to Danny Pierce to end the inning.

Bonde threw 8 innings giving up 7 hits with 5 strikeouts, 6 walks and 121 pitches thrown, 76 strikes.

The Irish are an exceptional baseball team. Bonde needed to stay away from starting innings with walks but he also wanted to be careful against the solid lineup he faced.

A walk to Zak Endres (Lakeville South) started the second inning followed by a double to right field off the bat of Ben Taxdahl (Prior Lake) who graduated from St. Thomas Academy in St. Paul.

Bonde nearly got out of the inning recording back to back outs thanks in part to an outstanding leaping grab at second by Nate Rost and a strikeout.

Lead batter in the St. Patrick order, Kal Brohmer (Lakeville South) stroked a two run single to give his team the only runs they would need.

Brohmer is a current player for Concordia-St. Paul.

Taxdahl drew a walk to start the 4th inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Rhodus (Lakeville North) who played for the Iowa State Club Team according to the Minnesota Baseball Association website page for the Irish.

St. Patrick added two runs in the 8th inning.  A one out walk to Endres was followed by Axdahl's second double.  With two outs Matt Ambroz (New Prague) hit a two run double to give the Irish a 5-0 lead going into the final inning.

The Lakers had some chances to score.  Langerud's single started the 4th inning but Tupy struck out the next three batters.

Back to back walks by Nate Rost and Ryan Archambault started the fifth inning but again Tupy struck out the next three batters after a wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position.  Tupy had 3 ball counts to all but one of the batters in what would be his final inning of work.

With one out in the 6th inning Faribault's Danny Pierce and Matt Lane gained the bases due to back to back errors but were left at first and second base following shallow outfield pop outs by Joe Grote and Nate Rost.

With one out in the 9th inning Grote and Rost clubbed back to back singles.  Ryan Archambault flied out to right field and Aiden Tobin popped out to second base to end the game.

St. Patrick hosts Montgomery Sunday at 1:00 p.m. to determine the top two seeds out of Region 3C at the State Amateur Baseball Tournament being hosted by Faribault, Dundas and Miesville Starting the weekend of August 19, 2022.

The Irish also have Collin Denk of Lakeville North on their pitching staff.  He is a junior at Minnesota State Mankato.

In an elimination Region 3C contest Veseli clobbered St. Benedict 10-0 in eight innings to end the Saints season.

The Lakers host Webster Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. with the winner clinching a spot at state and the loser ending their season.  Union Hill hosts Veseli in the other Wednesday Elimination Bracket game at 7:30 p.m. with the victor going to state.

The winners of the Elimination Bracket games will play on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at the high seed to determine the #3 and #4 seeds at State from Region 3C.

In Region 5C Winner's Bracket games Monday night Cannon Falls defeated Dodge Center 5-2 and Red Wing edged Hastings 3-2 to clinch spots at the State Tournament.

The Bears and Aces will play 8:00 p.m. Friday in Red Wing for the Region 5C Championship.  The winner will be the top seed out of the Region with the other team garnering the second seed.

If you are a top seed your team does not have to play the opening weekend of the tournament.

In Elimination Bracket Region 5C action Dodge Center tangles with Wanamingo 4:00 p.m. Saturday, August 14, 2022 and Hastings plays against Stewartville/Racine at 1:00 p.m. in Red Wing.

The winners collide at 7:00 p.m. Saturday.  The victor in that game will be the #3 seed out of Region 5C at the State Amateur Baseball Touranment.

Region 6C games Monday in the Elimination Bracket Morristown defeated Wells 7-4 in Belle Plaine while Waterville crushed Minnesota Lake 17-4 in Waterville.

The Morries will play the loser of Tuesday, August 9, 2022 Winner's Bracket game between Gaylord and St. Peter in Belle Plaine 11:00 a.m. Saturday, August 13, 2022.

That Winner's Bracket contest starts in Waterville at 7:30 p.m.

Waterville will go up against the loser of the other Winner's Bracket game between Jordan and Belle Plaine on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Belle Plaine.

Jordan and Belle Plaine tangle in Belle Plaine Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

Winner's Bracket victors Tuesday punch their tickets to the State Tournament and play for top seed at 7:00 p.m. Saturday in Belle Plaine.

Winners of the Morristown and Waterville Elimination bracket games play 4:00 p.m. Saturday in Belle Plaine with the winning team advancing as the #3 seed out of Region 6C.

In Section 1B Sunday Miesville defeated Hampton 7-3 to go to State as #1 seed out of the Section and Rochester dominated Elko 7-0 so the Royals are the #2 seed.

New Market evened their series with Dundas with a 10-8 win in New Market.

The tiebreaker game is scheduled for Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 8:00 p.m. in St. Patrick with the Muskies the home team.

The Redemption Round begins Friday with Hampton traveling to Elko.  The winner will play the loser of the Dundas vs. New Market game at either the Dukes or Muskies field at 2:00 p.m. Sunday for the other state qualifier from the Section.

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