134th Article at the Independent

Lamberton gets 500th victory in team’s history

Chris Drummond

Sports reporter

SLEEPY EYE — The Region 2C tournament got underway this weekend with the No. 3 seed Lamberton Long Sox playing against the No. 6 seed Leavenworth Orioles in the first game of Saturday’s action and the Long Sox defeated the Orioles 5-0 behind a strong pitching performance by Eli Fest. The Long Sox picked up their 500th win in team’s history with victory today.

The Long Sox will advance to the next round of the Region 2C playoffs where they will face the winner of the Hanska Lakers. That game will be played next Saturday in Sleepy Eye with time to still be determined.

The Long Sox got on the board first with a RBI double hit off the wall by Colby Pack and would add another run to make it a 2-0 game after the first three innings were complete.

Lamberton would add two more runs on hits by Austin Iribeck and Josh Altermatt, extending their lead by four over the Orioles. The Orioles bats were kept at bay by starting pitcher for the Long Sox Eli Fest, who didn’t give up a hit until the ninth inning. Lamberton would add another run and gave more than enough run support for Fest on the mound as he simply dominated Leavenworth and never let their bats in the game. Manager of the Lamberton Long Sox Derrick Jenniges assessed his team’s performance in today’s game.

“Pretty solid game all-around, we pitched well, got timely hits, played great defense as well. It was a really good all-around team win,” Jenniges said. Jenniges also talked about his pitcher’s Fest performance and the great defense he had around him.

“He faced 28 batters, one above the minimum,” Jenniges added. “We made some great defensive plays that helped us win the game. We were pretty engaged in the game.”

Infielder for the Sox Luke Willhite led the team in hits with three and also had a RBI. Fest also followed up his dominant pitching outing with three hits at the plate. As a team, Lamberton had 15 hits in the ballgame, leaving multiple opportunities on the field to score more runs, Jenniges added and now

Hitting: Lamberton Long Sox ( Willhite 3H, RBI; Pack 2H, RBI; Altermatt 1H, RBI; Fest 3H; Reiner 1H, RBI; Eichten 1H, RBI; Jenniges 1H; Salfer 1H; Irlbeck 2H)