Tigers’ Big Inning Sinks Huskies’ Season
Owatonna seemed to be in the driver's seat of their Section 1AAAA baseball elimination game Thursday at Farmington. The Huskies were up 4-0 after the top of the fourth inning and had just chased the Tigers' top pitcher from the game. Then things spun away from Owatonna. Farmington scored 11 runs, all with two outs, in the bottom of the inning on their way to a 16-6, six inning win over OHS, ending the Huskies season.
The Huskies had opened the playoffs last week with a 6-2, nine inning win at Farmington. Thursday's rematch, also at Tiger 1 Field, featured the same pitching match-up of Brady Bean for the Tigers against Sam Henson for the Huskies.
Through three innings Bean had limited OHS to two hits and fanned five. In the fourth, Jake Miller led off with a single. Zach Wiese smashed an 0-2 pitch deep to left to drive in Miller for a 1-0 Owatonna lead. Payton Beyer came in to run for Wiese and got thrown out at home on Jon Klecker's single to right. It was the second straight game the Huskies had a runner thrown out at the plate. Bradyn Truelson singled in a run for his first varsity RBI. Ethan Walter earned a bases loaded walk to cap the four-run outburst.
Henson allowed a lead-off single in the first and walked three through three innings. He retired the first batter in the fourth then surrendered a single. The next batter hit a come-backer to the mound but the Huskies just missed a double-play, leaving a runner at second base. Carter Hendrickson, in the eighth spot in the batting order, drilled a two-run homer to pull the Tigers within 4-2.
Between five hits, two walks, two hit batters and an error the next ten batter reached base with nine of them scoring to complete the 11-run frame. The Huskies used three pitchers in the fourth inning and six in the game.
Owatonna answered with two in the fifth inning. Farmington equaled that in the bottom of the inning and scored three in the sixth to end the game at 16-6.
All six Owatonna seniors on the rooster appeared in the game, including Miller, Matt inSegler, Klecker, Casey Cumberland, Ben Zappa and Easton Reuvers. OHS ended the season with a 9-14 record.