127th Article at the Independent

AREA SPORTS ROUNDUP: Ruthton amateur baseball wins first playoff series in team’s history, defeating Fox Lake 15-14 in Game 3

TRUMAN — After dropping game one of their best-of-three Region 13C playoff series, the Ruthton Royals amateur baseball team showed their resolve and beat the Fox Lake Foxes in the last two games to advance in the Region 13C playoffs. The Royals won game two 9-8 on Friday and won Sunday’s game three by one run as well, 15-14 on the road.

Cody Wichmann and Colin O’Rourke for the Royals each hit three-run home runs for their team and paced a comfortable lead in the early part of the game at 7-0 after two innings. Ruthton would add four more runs with Shay Wabeke hitting a solo home run and the lead grew to 11-2 over the Foxes after five innings. Wabeke would have three hits in the ballgame for the Royals.

Then Fox Lake’s bats would wake up. After facing a run-rule deficit going into the bottom of the seventh down 15-5, Fox Lake would put up a big inning scoring eight runs and trimming the deficit to just two heading into the eighth inning at 15-13. Neither team would score in the eighth and Ruthton was blanked in their half-inning of the ninth, which set up the final at-bat for Fox Lake.

After an out was recorded, the Royals gave up a walk and an RBI double trimming their lead to just one. Fox Lake would threaten no more, though, as Ruthton was able to get the last two outs and hold on to win the game and series by the final score of 15-14. Royals player Tylan Gylling would have two hits in the victory.

This marks the first playoff series victory for the Royals in team history. They now will advance in the Region 13C playoffs where opponent, time and day will be determined today.

Region 9C playoffs

DAWSON — The Region 9C playoff tournament got underway this weekend in Dawson on Saturday starting with the ninth seeded Dawson Drakes against the eighth seeded Chokio Coyotes. The Coyotes would win a close game against the Drakes 4-3 in the first game played Saturday morning, forcing the Drakes to head to the elimination bracket of the playoff tournament. The Drakes will play at 5 p.m. on July 30 and the winner will move on and the loser will have their season come to an end.

The next game on the schedule was the 10th seeded Cottonwood Cardinals going up against the seventh seeded Benson Plowboys. The Cardinals would earn the upset and defeat the Plowboys 8-3 to advance to the next round of play on Sunday to face the Dumont Saints. But the Cardinals couldn’t get the bats going and the Saints were able to shut them out to move on to next weekend’s round of games by winning 7-0.

The Cardinals will now go to the elimination bracket where they will play either next Saturday or Sunday with the opponent and time to still be determined.

The next game up was the top-seeded Minneota Mudhens facing Chokio. The Mudhens made quick work of the Coyotes winning 6-2 in a game played in less than two hours. Minneota will now move on to the next round and will play next in the winners bracket of the Region 9C playoff tournament. The game will be played in Dawson and scheduled first pitch is 10:30 a.m. next Sunday. They will face Madison.