Bird Island 10, Granite Falls 3
Lightning, in the beginning of the seventh inning Friday night, conspired to send the Kilowatt faithful scrambling from the aluminum pews of Richter Field after having witnessed Bird Island preside over a 10-3 interment of the Kilowatt’s season. The consequent postponement of the requiem made Friday night a seven inning Irish wake to allow for Saturday’s three-inning funeral as the Kilowatts season was laid to rest.
Trailing 4-2 after four innings, Granite’s resolve would falter as Bird Island posted three runs in both the fifth and the sixth innings with the Kilowatts answering weakly with only a single run of their own as the game wound into the seventh inning and lightning began to flash in the west.
After a single strike was thrown by Phil Johnson, who came on in relief of Tyler Kanten in the sixth, the game was stopped until Saturday night—where nothing of consequence would occur in the final three innings that could stir any remnant of life back into Granite’s season.
“They got out on top of us with a few runs and we just couldn’t get it going. We couldn’t get the clutch hits with guys on,” said Manager Mike Richter as he encapsulated the Kilowatt’s season in his review of their final game. “Things didn’t go our way this year. I think overall the guys participated hard, we’re just a young team. They all did very well, but it’s hard. You have to have team unity and things like that and it’s hard to get that when you throw a bunch of guys together. We’ve just had a lot of turnover the last few years and it’s hard to get that comfort level with pitching, hitting, defense and everything. On a positive note, I think everybody—for the most part—will be back next year. So, we’ll have to just lace them up and see what happens. That’s about all you can do.”
BI 400 033 000 — 10 15 1
GF 101 001 000 — 3 11 0
HITTING
Granite Falls: Phil Johnson 3-for-5, 2 runs; Jake Suter 1-for-5; Tyler Dammann 2-for-2, rbi; Craig Listul 1-for-4, rbi; Tyler Flattum 1-for-5; Tyler Kanten 1-for-4, HR; Andrew Walters 2-for-4
Bird Island: Dylan Gass 2-for-4, run; Kyle Seehusen 1-for-5, run; Shawn Dollarshell 3-for-5, 3 runs, rbi, 2b; Ben Aaseth 2-for-3, 3 runs, 3 rbi, HR; Steven Engleman 1-for-5; Alex Gay 1-for-4, rbi; Bucky Fredrickson 3-for-5, 2 rbi; Jeremy Mortensen 2-for-4, rbi, 2b
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
Granite Falls: Tyler Kanten (L) 4 1/3-12-7-7-2-2; Phil Johnson 4 2/3-3-3-3-2-4
Willmar: Jesse Bjur (W) 6-8-3-3-2-4; Jake Boersma 3-3-0-0-1-2
