Amateur Baseball
Alexandria wins a wild District 5B championship on Friday night. Down 2-0 over halfway through the game, the Angels exploded for a combined nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but then had to hang on as the Parkston Rays had a furious comeback of their own in store. The final score was 10-8, with Alexandria all but locking up the number one seed for the Class B State Amateur tournament that will begin on Wednesday at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.
Winner/Colome dispatched the Platte Killer Tomatoes to secure the coveted fifth state tourney berth out of the 5B field.
In 3B, Wessington Springs edged Winner by a final of 8-7. Blaze Herdman had three RBI, including a walk-off single.
Local teams that have made the tournament:
- Kimball/White Lake Nationals
- Colome Chaos
- Burke Bombers
- Alexandria Angels
- Parkston Rays
- Parkston Mudcats
- Mount Vernon Mustangs
- Winner/Colome Pheasants
- Wessington Springs Owls
MLB
The Twins front office is showing faith in their squad, already adding two arms before the trade deadline, and the team is responding in kind by playing winning baseball.
About 36 hours ago, Minnesota has traded for relief pitcher A.J. Minter, a lefty with a 2.35 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 23 innings pitched this season. In return, the Twins sent the Mets prospects Billy Amick and Bruin Agbayani. Minnesota picked up nearly $3.5 million of Minter’s salary.
Late Friday, Minnesota wheeled and dealed with Baltimore, snagging starter Dean Kremer from the birds. Kremer was on the IL for a good portion of this season, but he has been a steady hand over his career. He’ll be valuable to a Twins team that is lacking veteran pitching depth. The O’s got a young prospect from Minnesota that had yet to graduate past the complex league, sub-A ball, in Jhomnardo Reyes to complete the trade.
On the field, Minnesota is out west but still winning. The Twins took down the Seattle Mariners in late-night ball on Friday. The M’s got the jump on Minnesota early, putting up two against Zebby Matthews in the first and another in the second. Matthews righted the ship, though, fighting through five innings and racking up 10 strikeouts.
The Twins were down 3-2 into the seventh inning until a solo home run from Royce Lewis and an RBI double by Luke Keaschall flipped the script. A tack-on run in the eighth got the team to the final margin of 5-3.
Minnesota is now tied with Cleveland for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
WNBA
The Lynx are off until Sunday when Caitlin Clark will roll into town with a lot of Iowa fans in tow, I’m sure.