Claremont’s Legion baseball team battled back through the loser’s bracket to take third place in the Region 1B tournament played in Ortonville, MN, last week, while the U16 squad is still alive in regional play and is hosting West Central today (Wednesday) at 1 p.m. in the second game of a best-of-three playoff.
The Honkers Legion nine was the victim of a hot pitcher against Big Stone City in the regional opener, falling 9-3. Big Stone City’s Hunter Merritt fanned 16 Claremont batters, walked just one, and allowed only five hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Coach Joe Gustafson’s crew battled back to stop Sisseton 6-5 and Webster 10-0 in the double elimination tourney to earn another shot at Big Stone City but lost again 12-2 to end its season with a 15-14 mark.
The U16 squad lost 6-2 to West Central in the first of their best-of-three series in Hartford on Monday.
Big Stone City 9 Claremont 3
Big Stone City jumped out to a 4-0 lead but the Honkers strung together some hits to rally for three runs and cut the margin to 4-3 in the third before Big Stone City’s Merritt took charge.
Chris Cutler rapped a pair of singles, Kassen Keough ripped a triple, Ben Gustafson doubled, and Jesse Keough singled for Claremont. Jesse Keough was tagged with the pitching loss, but pitched a solid five innings.
Big Stone City 1 0 3 2 0 0 3 – 9 6 0 Claremont 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 – 3 5 2
Hunter Merritt, Carter Lee (7); Jesse Keough, Rennan Bruns (6), Kassen Keough (7) and Will Cutler
Claremont 6 Sisseton 5
Claremont trailed 5-0 in the fourth but whittled away at the lead and came up with a walkoff, bases-loaded two-out walk by Chris Cutler in the seventh for the win to stay alive.
Claremont had two outs with just one baserunner in the seventh and was down to its last strike a couple of times before loading the bases to set up Cutler’s winning walk.
Will Cutler slammed a tworun homer in the fifth inning to key a three-run Honker rally, and Gustafson, Grant Cutler, Will Cutler, and Braven Hanse all singled. Bruns started on the mound and Will Cutler pitched five innings in relief to pick up the win.
Sisseton 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 – 5 5 0 Claremont 0 0 0 1 3 0 2 – 6 4 3
Landyn Steichen, Carter Metz (7); Rennan Bruns, Will Cutler (3) and Jesse Keough
Claremont 10 Webster 0
The Honkers jumped on Webster with five runs in the first and three more in the second and ended the game on the 10-run rule after five frames.
Chris Cutler had a single and three RBI’s to pace the Claremont attack. Jesse Keough, Bruns, and Will Schuller added safeties. The Honkers were aided by five Webster errors. Ben Gustafson started on the mound with relief help from Chris Cutler.
Claremont 5 3 0 0 2 – 10 4 0 Webster 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 4 5
Ben Gustafson, Chris Cutler (3) and Will Cutler; Ian Lesnar, Sheldon Schmig (4)
Big Stone City 12 Claremont 2
Seven errors proved costly as the Honkers were eliminated in the same game of the regional by Big Stone City for the second straight year.
Big Stone City did most of its damage in the third inning, exploding for 10 runs, and ended the game on the 10-run rule after five innings.
Schuller doubled and Grant Cutler, Will Cutler, and Chris Cutler added base hits. Gustafson started on the mound and Kassen Keough came on in relief.
Claremont 0 0 2 0 0 – 2 4 7 Big Stone City 0 0 (10) 1 1 – 12 9 1
Ben Gustafson, Kassen Keough (3) and Will Cutler; Carter Brown, Isaac Brown (4)
West Central 6 Claremont U16 2
West Central jumped out to a 6-0 lead with three-run rallies in the first and third frames and held on for the win in the opener of the best-of-three regional series. Claremont rallied for a pair of runs in the seventh behind a two-run Kassen Keough single but couldn’t make up the six-run deficit. Grant Cutler and Colby Dauwen both added safeties. Rennan Bruns started on the mound and Kassen Keough came on in relief in the fourth. West Central’s Jericho Klein fanned 11.
Claremont 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 – 2 3 6 West Central 3 0 3 0 0 0 x – 6 11 1
Rennan Bruns, Kassen Keough (4) and Conner Glines; Jericho Klein
