By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Frazee Hornets dropped a pair of non-conference games last week, while a Heart O’ Lakes Conference doubleheader against Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton was postponed on Thursday night. 

In Monday’s game against Otter Tail Central, Frazee fell to the Bulldogs by a score of 3-2 in a game that featured wet conditions and even a bit of rain falling from the sky. On Wednesday the Hornets fell to Lake Park-Audubon in a game that was postponed from the day before due to inclement weather.

Monday

In a game that had anything but ideal weather wise, OTC was able to get the best of Frazee by a score of 3-2 in nine innings on Monday night. Tied 2-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth, OTC led off the inning by being hit, before the runner was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt. A walk put runners on first and second base with one out, before an error left the bases loaded  with just one out. The following hitter reached on an error to end the game in dramatic fashion by a score of 3-2.

Frazee opened the scoring with a Chandler Ullrich two out single to bring Logan Brekke across the plate to give Frazee a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. 

OTC tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning and took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning on a pair of two out singles. 

The Hornets found themselves in a bit of a jam in the top of the seventh inning and trailing by a score of 2-1. That’s when Drew Mekalson came through with a one out RBI double to bring Brekke across the plate for the second time of game to tie the score at 2-2. With runners on second and third base and just one out, the Hornets had a chance to take the lead, but were unable to get the runners across the plate to leave the score at 2-2. 

Both teams had chances to score in extra innings, but the Bulldogs were able to capitalize on the pair of errors in the ninth inning to come away with the win. 

Ullrich led the way offensively with a pair of hits in the game. 

Karson Krause and Mekalson threw well on the mound as they combined to go 8 1/3 innings and gave up just one earned run and seven hits in the game. 

AB R H     BI

C. Pausch 5 0 0 0

D. Mekalson 4 0 1 1

A. Blaine 3 0 0 0

D. Zitzow 3 0 1 0

K. Krause 3 0 0 0

A. Vigen 4 0 0 0

A. Aho 2 0 1 0

L. Brekke 3 2 0 0

C. Ullrich 2 0 2 1

HITTING- 2B- D. Mekalson

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- K. Krause 6.2-7-2-1-4-4, D. Mekalson 1.2-0-1-0-2-0

Wednesday

Frazee dropped its second close non-conference game of the week on Wednesday afternoon to Lake Park-Audubon by a score of 5-3. The Raiders opened the scoring in the top of the first inning on a wild pitch, before taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning on a two out RBI single. 

Cael Pausch came through with a clutch hit in the bottom of the fifth inning when he connected on a two-run single with two outs to bring Karson Krause and Andrew Aho across the plate to tie the game up at 2-2. 

Lake Park-Audubon quickly retook the lead in the top of the sixth inning on a leadoff solo home run to make the score 3-2. The Hornets wasted little time to tie the score back up in the bottom of the sixth inning when Ayden Grossman stole third base and scored on an error by the third baseman on the play to make the score 3-3 heading into the top of the seventh inning.

Unfortunately, the Raiders came through with an RBI single and a fielder’s choice to make the score 5-3. The Hornets brought the tying run up to the plate with two outs, but were unable to crack the scoreboard as they fell by a score of 5-3. 

Pausch led the way offensively with a single and a pair of RBIs, while Brekke took the loss on the mound as he went six innings and gave up three earned runs and struck out nine hitters over six innings of work. He also gave up just three hits in the loss.