The Victory League regular season ended this past weekend with Fort Ripley (North), Buckman (East), Sobieski (West) and Avon (South) securing division titles and the top seeds in the division playoffs.
A few play-in games in the East and West were scheduled Sunday with the playoffs slated to begin Saturday, July 15.
North Division:
No. 4 Cuyuna Range (5-8) at No. 1 Fort Ripley (13-0) Saturday;
No. 3 Aitkin at No. 2 Nisswa Saturday.
Nisswa and Aitkin both finished 6-7, split during the regular season and by virtue of the fourth tiebreaker criteria, Nisswa was awarded the No. 2 seed and Aitkin No. 3.
East Division: Pierz Bulldogs (2-11) at Royalton (3-10) in play-in game 5 p.m. Sunday with the winner getting the No. 4 seed and traveling to No. 1 Buckman (10-3) Saturday
No. 3 Lastrup at No. 2 Pierz Brewers Saturday.
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The Brewers and Lastrup both finished the regular season 9-4, but the Brewers swept the Lakers during the regular season to earn the tiebreaker for the No. 2 seed.
West Division: Flensburg played at Swanville 10 a.m. Sunday in a play-in game with the winner getting the No. 4 seed and traveling to No. 1 Sobieski (13-0) Saturday.
Flensburg and Swanville both finished 1-12 splitting their season series by identical 8-2 scores.
No. 3 Randall (6-7) at No. 2 Upsala (10-3) Saturday.
South Division: No. 4 Freeport (5-7) at No. 1 Avon (9-3) Saturday
No. 3 St. Wendel (7-6) at No. 2 St. Stephen (8-5) Saturday.
Freeport and Avon had one remaining regular-season game against each other Sunday that would not affect the playoff seedings.
Saturday games
Buckman 8, Lastrup 0
BUCKMAN-Jeremy Monson tossed a five-hit shutout for the Buckman Billygoats who captured the East Division regular-season championship with an 8-0 win over the Lastrup Lakers Saturday.
Buckman and Lastrup had entered the final game of the season tied for first with 9-3 records.
Monson struck out five and walked only one in a complete game effort.
Shawn Lanners belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer for the Billygoats and Matt Kummet went 3-4 with a pair of RBIs. Joe Kahl tripled and scored twice while Noah Boser, Aaron Weber and Lane Girtz each had doubles.
Reggie Litke collected two of the five Lastrup hits.
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Lastrup 0 5 3
Buckman 8 11 0
WP: Jeremy Monson. LP: Brad Meyer. 2B: B-Noah Boser, Aaron Weber, Lane Girtz. 3B: B-Joe Kahl. HR: B-Shawn Lanners.
Cuyuna Range 14,
St. Mathias 3
ST. MATHIAS-Jake Zontelli struck out nine and walked three while allowing five hits as he went the distance for the Cuyuna Range Miners in an eight-inning 14-3 victory over the St. Mathias Devils Saturday.
Zontelli led the Miners at the plate as well finishing 3-5 with two runs. Reed Olander, Gunnar Wiklund and Ben Jordan also had multiple hits.
Cuyuna Range 14 12 0
St. Mathias 3 5 0
8 innings
WP: Jake Zontelli. LP: Ethan Lochner.
Nisswa 10, Bulldogs 7
NISSWA-The Nisswa Lightning locked up the North's No. 2 seed with a 10-7 come-from-behind win over the Pierz Bulldogs Saturday.
The Lightning trailed 4-1 after six innings and 7-6 after the top of the eighth before scoring the final four runs of the game in the bottom of the eighth. Adam Hardy had a two-run single, Tyler Witter singled home another run and a Morgan Shepherd sacrifice fly made it 10-7.
Aaron Jenkins hit a grand slam for the Lightning in the sixth and Hardy hit a solo blast in the same inning. Chris Pederson and Wittwer each finished with three hits including doubles while Tory Miller and Drew Boland had two hits apiece.
Ryan Foreman went 3-5 with a solo home run for Pierz, Andy Leidenfrost was 3-4 with a double, two RBIs and two runs. Craig Luberts was 2-4 with a double and Joe Hanson was 2-3 with a pair of RBIs and scored twice.
Boland earned the win tossing the final 1.2 innings in relief of starter Logan McElfresh and Wittwer. Nick Herold took the loss for the Bulldogs who used five pitchers.
Bulldogs 7 11 1
Nisswa 10 15 3
WP: Drew Boland. LP: Nick Herold. 2B: N-Chris Pederson, Tyler Wittwer; Prz-Craig Luberts, Andy Leidenfrost. HR: N-Aaron Jenkins, Adam Hardy; Prz-Ryan Foreman.
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Brewers 6, Royalton 5
PIERZ-Jeremy Payne was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th forcing in the winning run for the Pierz Brewers in a 6-5 victory over the Royalton Riverdogs Saturday.
With the score tied 3-3 at the end of regulation, Royalton scored twice in the top of the 10th on a two-out, two-run double by Cole Jendro.
Logan Meyer doubled to lead off for Pierz in the bottom of the stanza and scored on an RBI single by Mike Poser to make it 5-4. Consecutive bunt singles by Breck Weber and Brian Kiel loaded the bases with no outs. Dylan Kummet's single tied the game at 5-5 and Royalton reliever Nathan Psyck hit Payne.
Kiel and Kummet had three hits each for the Brewers and Eric Boser, Weber and Meyer had two each. Kiel, Boser and Meyer contributed doubles.
Poser earned the win pitching the final six innings in relief of Meyer who started. Both had four strikeouts.
Psyck was tagged with the loss after replacing starter Matt Gottwalt who went 9-plus innings striking out three and walking six while allowing 11 hits and five runs.
Jendro paced the Royalton offense going 3-6 with a double and two RBIs. Ryan Snyder and Nate Benusa each had a pair of hits.
Royalton 5 11 0
Brewers 6 14 0
10 innings
WP: Mike Poser. LP: Nathan Psyck. 2B: Prz-Brian Kiel, Eric Boser, Logan Meyer; R-Cole Jendro.
Fort Ripley 14,
St. Mathias 2
ST. MATHIAS-The Fort Ripley Rebels finished the regular season 13-0 following a 14-2 seven-inning win over the St. Mathias Devils late Saturday.
The Rebels are the top seed in the North Division and will host No. 4 Cuyuna Range next Saturday for their playoff opener.
Bill Sather belted a pair of home runs among his four hits for Fort Ripley and drove in five runs. Nick Jelacie was 2-2 with a double scoring three runs. Jason Sather also had two hits. Brett Kramer and Dustin Littlefield contributed doubles.
The Rebels' big inning came in the fourth when they blew the game open with eight runs.
Matt Woitalla paced the Devils at the plate with a three-hit game and Josh Boser added a pair of singles. St. Mathias ends the season 2-11 and out of the playoffs.
Fort Ripley 14 11 0
St. Mathias 2 9 0
7 innings
WP: Luke Weber. LP: Taylor Lennartson. 2B: FR-Nick Jelacie, Brett Kramer, Dustin Littlefield. HR: FR-Bill Sather 2.
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Fort Ripley 7,
Aitkin 4
FORT RIPLEY - Earlier Saturday, the Fort Ripley Rebels scored four runs in the second on a solo homer from Brett Kramer, two-run double by Luke Weber and a Jack Hegarty sacrifice fly to beat the Aitkin Steam 7-4.
Kramer also doubled and the Rebels got additional doubles from Jason Sather, Dustin Littlefield and Weber.
Ethan Branum struck out five and allowed seven hits over seven innings before giving way to Hegarty who threw two innings of shutout relief.
Brian Burman and Jack Kuppich finished with two hits each for Aitkin and Sam Peterson contributed a double.
Aitkin will be the North's No. 3 seed and will go to No. 2 Nisswa next Saturday. The teams split a doubleheader Friday.
Aitkin 4 8 2
Fort Ripley 7 10 2
WP: Ethan Branum. LP: Caleb Curtiss. 2B: FR-Jason Sather, Dustin Littlefield, Luke Weber; A-Sam Peterson. 3B: FR-Brett Kramer. HR: FR-Kramer.
Friday games
Aitkin, Nisswa
split doubleheader
NISSWA-The Aitkin Steam and Nisswa Lightning split a doubleheader Friday with the Steam taking the opener 10-8 in eight innings and the Lightning bouncing back to win the nightcap 5-3 in seven scheduled innings.
Brian Burman led Aitkin in the opener going 4-5 with a home run, two doubles, three RBIs and four runs scored. Burman's two-run homer in the top of the eighth accounted for the winning runs.
Jake Lynn also belted a two-run homer for the Steam and Sam Peterson finished 4-4 with a double and four runs. Nathan Ehnstrom and Drew Nordean also contributed doubles.
Nisswa was led by Tory Miller who went 3-5 scoring three runs. Aaron Jenkins, Drew Boland and Chris Pederson had two hits apiece and Tyler Wittwer delivered a three-run double in the bottom of the seventh that tied the score 8-8 and sent the game into extra innings.
In the second game, Aaron Jenkins gave Nisswa the lead with a three-run homer in the top of the third, but Aitkin tied it up in the fifth with a three-run shot by Sam Peterson.
Nisswa plated the winning runs in the seventh on an error and RBI single by Drew Boland.
Both teams finished with just five hits including doubles by Luke Schumer for Nisswa and Burman for the Steam.
Tory Miller picked up the win tossing the final two innings in relief of Schumer who started.
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Game One
Aitkin 10 13 0
Nisswa 8 12 2
8 innings
WP: Jeremy Janzen. LP: Luke Schumer. 2B: A-Sam Peterson, Brian Burman 2, Nathan Ehnstrom, Drew Nordean; N-Tyler Wittwer. HR: A-Burman, Jake Lynn.
Game Two
Nisswa 5 5 0
Aitkin 3 5 1
WP: Tory Miller. LP: Drew Nordean. 2B: N-Luke Schumer; A-Brian Burman. HR: N-Aaron Jenkins; A-Sam Peterson.
