Eyota 4
Paynesville defeated a very tough Eyota team by a final score of 7-4, in the second round of the state tournament.
Paynesville fell just short of the state championship by losing to Nashwauk-Keewatin 4-3, in Ely at the state tournament.Brent Heinen pitched and was handed the loss, despite pitching a good game.
Doug Fuchs, Ben Bork, and Jon Lieser led Paynesville at the plate as all three of them were 2-3 in the game.
Ryan Schneider was tagged out at the plate during the state Legion baseball tournament.
Both pitchers dueled through the first three innings. In the bottom of the fourth Scott Braun led off the bottom of the fourth when he reached on an error.
Lieser then doubled and drove in Braun. Lieser then scored on a wild pitch to give Paynesville an early 2-0 advantage.
Heinen held Nashwauk-Keewatin scoreless until the top of the fifth, when they scored all four of their runs.
Down by two, Paynesville attempted to mount a comeback one more time. Fuchs led off with a single. Lieser then followed with another hit to put runners on first and second. Adam Miller hit into a fielders' choice when N-K shortstop forced out Fuchs at third. Nate Schutz then walked to load the bases and bring Justin Mackedanz to the plate.
Mackedanz hit a sacrifice fly allowing Lieser to score to make the N-K lead only one at 4-3.
On the play Curtis Christian, who was pinch running for Miller, was thrown out trying to advance from second to third to end the inning.
Heinen went out and shut the door on N-K in the seventh to keep Paynesville in the game.
Chad Fleischhacker once again found a way to get on base to lead off the inning as he reached on an error. Bork then bunted Fleischhacker down to second base. Heinen ground to third and Fleischhacker advanced to third.
With the tying run on third Paynesville had Scott Braun at the plate. Braun homered in the district tournament, which turned out to be the game winning run.
This time, though, Braun hit a chopper to the shortstop, Jason Fillman, who made a nice play, and threw Braun out by a half-step. If Braun had beaten the play out Paynesville would have tied the game with Fleischhacker scoring from third, but it wasn't meant to be.
"I thought we played pretty well," said Braun. "They were just a little bit better of a team than us."
Even though Paynesville fell just short of the championship, the players still had a lot of fun.
"It was a lot of fun, and we stayed at a nice place," said Doug Fuchs. "It would have been fun to win it all, but second in the state is still very good."
Brad Skoglund, Paynesville coach, really thought the games were very intense and thought all the players did very well.
"It took a total team effort, all 16 guys on the team, helped us win one way or another," said Skoglund.
| N-K-- | 000 | 040 | 0 | -4 | 6 | 3 |
| Paynesville-- | 000 | 201 | 0 | -3 | 6 | 2 |
Paynesville 7
Eyota 4
Paynesville defeated a very tough Eyota team by a final score of 7-4, in the second round of the state tournament.
The Payneville American Legion team stands in line awaiting their introduction at the state Legion baseball tournament.
Jon Lieser started on the mound for Paynesville and went the distance to earn the victory.
Eyota scored 25 runs in the two other games they played. They scored 10 in the first game to face Paynesville, and 15 in their third game after the loss to Paynesville.
Brent Heinen led Paynesville at the plate as he was 2-4 with a three-run home run. Doug Fuchs, Scott Braun, Chad Fleischhacker, and Ben Bork all added two hits for Paynesville in the game.
Paynesville once again found them-selves trailing early as tournament MVP, Mark Skukrud, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning.
Lieser remained strong, but was taken deep again in the second inning. This time it was a two-run homer by Kevin Kallot.
Paynesville was trailing 3-0 after the second inning, but came back strong in the top of the third.
Fleischhacker doubled to lead off the inning, and was followed by a single by Bork to put runners on second and third for Heinen. Heinen then hit a three-run homer to tie the game at three.
Paynesville wasn't done yet. Braun singled to keep the Paynesville rally going. Fuchs then singled to drive in Braun, and moved all the way to third on an error by the left fielder. Lieser then hit a sacrifice fly allowing Fuchs to score to put Paynesville ahead by a count of 5-3.
Lieser then became tough on the mound and didn't allow a run in either the third or the fourth innings.
In the fifth though, Skukrud struck again with another solo home run to make the score 5-4, Paynesville.
Paynesville was looking to add some insurance runs in the sixth, and that is exactly what they did. Fleischhacker again led off the inning with a single and advanced on an error by the second baseman.
Braun then singled to drive in Fleischhacker to make the score 6-4, Paynesville. Braun came around to score in the inning as well, and Paynesville took a 7-4 lead into the seventh inning.
Lieser turned it up a notch after giving up the homer to Skukrud. He retired the last eight batters he faced to keep them off the scoreboard and allowed Paynesville to get the victory.
| Paynesville-- | 005 | 002 | 0 | -7 | 14 | 1 |
| Eyota-- | 120 | 010 | 0 | -4 | 4 | 3 |
Paynesville 5
LeSueur-Henderson 3
Paynesville defeated LeSueur-Henderson 5-3, in the first round of the Division II State Legion Baseball Tournament.
Brent Heinen started on the mound, but was bothered by a tight shoulder and left the game after two-thirds of an inning. Doug Fuchs came in and pitched great earning the victory going the rest of the way for Paynesville, only allowing one run.
Jon Lieser led Paynesville at the plate as he was 2-2 with two RBIs and one run scored. Chad Fleischhacker also had a good game at the plate as he was 2-3 with a run scored and one RBI.
Heinen struggled in the top of the first inning as he allowed L-H to get two runs. L-H was able to get three consecutive hits leading to the two runs.
Paynesville got one run back in the bottom of the second when Lieser singled and was driven in by Adam Miller to cut the L-H lead to 2-1.
Fuchs kept L-H off the board, but L-H was able to do the same thing to Paynesville until the bottom of the fifth.
Fleischhacker then led off with a single. Ben Bork followed suit with another single. Heinen then bunted them over to second and third. Scott Braun walked and the bases were loaded for Paynesville with just one out.
Fuchs helped his own cause, by hitting a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Fleischhacker. Lieser then hit a two-run single to give Paynesville a 4-2 lead.
Paynesville added one more in the sixth when Fleischhacker drove in Nate Schutz to make the score 5-2, Paynesville.
The drama was not over yet. Fuchs gave up two consecutive hits that really were not hit hard. Then Fuchs beaned the number nine hitter to load the bases, with nobody out.
A ground out to second allowed one run to score and the other runners to advance to second and third with one out. Fuchs remained strong though, getting Levi Becker to strike out. He then got the pitcher John Schaffler to fly to right to end the game.
| L-H-- | 200 | 000 | 1 | -3 | 7 | 3 |
| Paynesville-- | 010 | 031 | X | -5 | 10 | 1 |