Blue Earth/Winnebago legion baseball outslugs Madelia in 1st-round playoff, 15-9

BLUE EARTH -- The host Blue Earth American Legion Post 89/Winnebago Post 82 baseball team experienced a bout of "lumber slumber" during Thursday's Division II, Sub-District 'C' tournament opener.

Trailing Madelia Post 19 by a 6-1 margin, Colton Hubly's one-out double triggered BEW's four-run fourth-inning explosion before Hubly's bloop single with one out in the bottom of the fifth ignited an eight-run offensive avalanche to put the first-round playoff game out of reach.

Hubly, Parker Meyers, Caleb Langager, Abram Kokos and Carson Sturtz each produced two of BEW's 13 hits, while Logan O'Hara pitched 5 1/3 yeoman innings of relief to power the host legion lineup to a 15-9 comeback victory over Madelia.

Blue Earth/Winnebago plays United South Central at 11:30 a.m. today back in Blue Earth. USC edged Truman by a 2-1 opening-round decision on Thursday. Madelia will play the loser between St. James and Welcome/Sherburn at 2 p.m. today in the elimination bracket in Blue Earth.

"It took us a while to wake up our bats, but once we got them going … wow," said BEW legion coach Paul Neinaber.

Dylan Grev, who went 2-for-2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch plate appearance, hammered a two-run double to deep left field to trigger Madelia's three-run outburst during the top of the first inning.

Tony Zaleski's single, Eric Anderson's RBI single and an error on Tate Becker's grounder to short allowed Madelia to extend its lead to 5-0 in the top of the second.

BEW, however, answered with a solo run in the home half of the second when Nick Barke doubled and circled the bases when James Allis' grounder was mishandled at short.

Langager, who had reached on an error, scored on Meyers' towering double for the first of the BEW No. 3 batter's co-game-best three RBIs in the last of the third to pare the gap to 5-2.

Becker's sacrifice fly later plated Zaleski, who was plunked by a delivery, to add a solo run for Madelia in the fourth before Hubly and BEW's batting order erupted during the home half of the fourth.

Hubly doubled and scored on Kokos' RBI single to left field to set the table before Sturtz singled to put runners on second and third following a late return throw to the infield.

Soren Fering walked to load the bases before Langager unloaded them with a two-run single to center to narrow BEW's deficit to 6-5. The fleet-footed Fering later scored the tying run on a wild pitch.

Madelia reclaimed the lead by plating three runs in the top of the fifth. Garrett Reed and Cale Odegard smacked back-to-back singles before Post 19 scored on the backside of a double-steal attempt that produced a rundown out. An error on Zaleski's grounder and Grev's RBI single staked Madelia to a 9-6 margin.

After a walk to Allis, Hubly singled before Kokos lined an RBI single to the right-center gap to trigger BEW's merry-go-round fifth at-bat. Sturtz was plunked before Fering and Langager drew back-to-back walks to net another run.

Meyers launched a two-run single to left field before Logan O'Hara crushed a two-run triple to straight-away center to grab a 12-9 lead. Allis later blasted an RBI double off the center-field wall to cap the eight-run explosion and 14-9 lead.

O'Hara allowed four runs -- just one earned -- on four hits in 5 1/3 innings of relief to net the win. The right-hander struck out seven, walked two and hit two batters.