Mavericks defuse Chargers, 8-5

NEW ULM -- After breaking up Martin County West righty Zach Anderson's no-hitter in the sixth inning, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers made Anderson and the Mavericks sweat a little bit in the bottom of the seventh when it pushed five runs across the plate.

Fortunately for Anderson and the Mavericks, they did enough damage at the plate earlier in the game to hang on for an 8-5 win at Mueller Park in a nonconference regular-season baseball game in New Ulm.

Anderson ended up allowing six hits and a walk for two earned runs while striking out two in the complete-game win.

MCW was led at the plate by Lucas Larson, who went 2-for-2 with three RBIs, and Cody Potts, who went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

MVL left-hander Zach Riederer took the loss in five innings, giving up five unearned runs on four hits and three walks while fanning four.

Leading the Chargers at the plate was Kyan Kube, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

It was a pitchers' duel through the first four innings between Anderson and Riederer, with Riederer giving up just two hits during that stretch.

Anderson forced six popouts against the first nine batters he faced and saw his left fielder Riley Kascht make a diving catch in left-center in the fourth to take a hit away from Riederer.

"I was just mixing it up between by fastball and curveball and just trying to keep them off-balance and getting those popups like I was," Anderson said.

Riederer saw trouble in the fifth after his infield committed three errors in a row to start the inning. The Mavericks made the Chargers pay for those mistakes, with one run scoring on an error and four on a pair of two-run singles by Wyatt Williamson and Larson.

"I think it was 0-0 through the first four innings and then we had that bad fifth inning," MVL head coach Nick Doetkott said. "Honestly, we just can't have that. Physical errors happen, but we need to cut down on them. But we had some mental errors, too. We didn't know where we were going with the ball a couple times, we just can't have that. We should be better than that. I'll take the blame on that, too, but we've got to be better than that.

"Zach Riederer was pitching a heck of a game, but we didn't really show up for him."

Bradyn Kube pitched the final two innings in relief for Riederer, allowing three unearned runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out one.

MCW added another run in the sixth after Potts stole third and then came home after a throw from the catcher got away from the third baseman.

MCW then scored two more in the seventh on RBI singles from Larson and Raef Omvig.

After Kyan Kube broke up Anderson's no-no in the sixth with a single to left, Anderson allowed his first walk of the game moments later before getting a popout to end the inning.

But things got rough for Anderson in the bottom of the seventh as Bradyn Kube had a leadoff single to left.

Anderson then forced another popout, but a bloop single by Jensen Gerdts was followed by a throwing error that scored Bradyn Kube from third and allowed Seth Schmidt to reach first safely.

Drew Witte and Kyan Kube followed that with RBI singles to keep MVL alive before Cole Thompson singled in a run up the middle. Riederer grounded out to score another run before Anderson got a groundout to end the game.

While Anderson mixed his pitches well early on, he said he got away from that in the seventh as MVL rallied.

"I wasn't really mixing up my pitches as well as I wanted to," Anderson said. "I was kind of getting predictable. I just need to be able to mix up the pitches a little better than I was there at the end."

Doetkott said despite the letdowns in the game, he was happy with his team's ability to dig out of an 8-0 hole and make a game of it.

"They battled," he said. "And it started at the bottom of the order, too. We were putting the ball in play, getting hits and we made a game out of it.

"As bad as we played the fifth inning and as missing as our bats were the first six, we made a game out of it, so I've got to give my guys credit for that."

Martin County West plays host to Fairmont at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Fox Lake Sports Complex in Welcome.

Minnesota Valley Lutheran awaits the section playoff pairings.

Prep Softball

Martin County West 16, Cleveland 12 -- Lina Arnold produced a game-best four RBIs with two hits while teammate Hannah Rosenberg contributed three hits and three RBIs to the Mavericks' four-run Valley Conference Showcase win over the Clippers on Friday night at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

Rosenberg drilled a triple, while Emily Anderson and Ella Carlson each collected three hits and drove in two runs for MCW.

Marah Steele netted three hits and one RBI, while Thea Anderson singled, doubled and garnered one RBI for the Mavericks.

Addy Wohlhuter allowed one run on three hits, recorded two strikeouts and did not issue a walk in three innings of relief to earn the win for MCW.

No. 7-seeded Martin County West (12-4) opens the Section 2A playoffs by playing host to No. 10-seeded Madelia at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Fox Lake Sports Complex in Welcome.