Frazee advances in Section 5A winner’s bracket

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Frazee is just two wins away from capturing their first section championship since the 20th century as the Hornets upset top seeded New York Mills and second seeded Sebeka in a pair of one-run games last week.

The Hornets rode a dominant pitching performance by Asher Blaine on Tuesday night as he struck out 14 hitters in a 1-0 win in eight innings over NY Mills, before defeating Sebeka by a score of 4-3 on Thursday night. Karson Krause struck out 10 Trojan hitters and gave up just one earned run in the 4-3 win.

The pair of wins sets the Hornets up with a chance to advance to their first state baseball tournament since 1999 when they play the top seed from the southeast sub section in Ogilvie on Monday night (results of the game were not available at the time of press). Ogilvie comes into the game with a record of 14-6 overall and a QRF ranking of 26. 

The Hornets are currently 13-10 overall and have a QRF ranking of 25.

The winner of the game will advance to Thursday’s Section 5A championship game, while the loser will fall to the elimination bracket and will need to win one game Tuesday night to advance to the section title game where they will need to beat the winner’s bracket champion twice to advance to state. 

Tuesday

Frazee’s Asher Blaine and NY Mills’ Isaac Kawlewski combined to strike out 26 batters and gave up just six hits over a combined 15 innings of action on Tuesday night. 

Fortunately for the Hornets, the lone run the two starting pitchers gave up came off the bat of Frazee’s Adam Vigen with two outs in the top of the eighth inning that brought what would turn out to be the winning run from second base and hand the fifth seeded Frazee Hornets a 1-0 upset win over the top seeded New York Mills on Tuesday night. 

Mason Mickelson led off the top of the seventh inning with a single and stole second base, before advancing to third base on a Dawson Lyman sacrifice bunt.

He scored on Vigen’s RBI single with two outs in the top of the eighth inning. From there, the Hornets shut the door as they sent the Eagles down in order in the bottom of the eighth inning to come away with the 1-0 win.

The Eagles were held to just one hit in the pitcher’s dual, a two out single by Braxton Ehnert in the bottom of the first inning. NY Mills did not get another base runner until there were two outs in the sixth inning as the next 15 hitters were retired in order by Blaine who gave up just one hit in the 1-0 win.

Vigen led the way offensively with two hits, while Blaine was brilliant on the mound as he went 7 2/3 innings giving up just two hits and two walks, while striking out 14 hitters. 

Frazee vs. New York Mills

AB R H     BI

Adam Vigen 4 0 2 1

Asher Blaine 4 0 0 0

Noah Mekalson 3 0 0 0

Karson Krause 3 0 1 0

Conner Erickson 3 0 0 0

Andrew Aho 3 0 0 0

Mason Mickelson 3 1 1 0

Blake Sonnenberg 3 0 0 0

Dawson Lyman 0 0 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Adam Vigen

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Asher Blaine 7.2-2-0-0-2-14, Noah Mekalson 0.1-0-0-0-0-0

Thursday

The Frazee Hornets capped its tremendous run through the sub section tournament with a 4-3 win over the Sebeka Trojans on Thursday night. The win gives the Hornets the sub section championship and leaves Frazee just two wins away from its first state tournament since 1999. 

Sebeka scored single runs in both the first and second inning, before Frazee tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the third inning on an Asher Blaine sacrifice fly and a Noah Mekalson RBI single. 

Both teams remained scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when Sebeka took a 3-2 lead when Kaison Campbell scored on a passed ball.

After the first batter of the top of the seventh inning struck out looking, the Hornets were down to their final two outs before Andrew Aho reached on an error and would score on the next batter when Mason Mickelson laced a double to center field. The Hornets took their first lead of the game when Blake Sonnenberg followed with a fly out to right field that not only allowed Mickelson to tag up to advance to third base, but score on an errant throw. 

Sebeka had a chance to come away with the win in the bottom of the seventh inning when they had the tying run on second base and winning run on first with two outs, but Karson Krause struck out his 10th and final batter of the evening to preserve the 4-3 win. 

The Hornets finished with just three hits in the win, but took advantage of three walks and one costly Sebeka error to come away with the win. 

Krause was brilliant on the mound as he went seven innings, giving up six hits, three runs of which just one was earned and struck out 10 hitters. 

Frazee vs. Sebeka

AB R H     BI

Adam Vigen 3 0 0 0

Asher Blaine 2 0 0 1

Noah Mekalson 3 0 1 1

Karson Krause 3 0 0 0

Conner Erickson 2 0 0 0

Ben Reierson 1 0 0 0

Andrew Aho 2 1 0 0

Mason Mickelson 3 1 1 1

Blake Sonnenberg 3 1 1 1

Dawson Lyman 1 1 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Blake Sonnenberg, Mason Mickelson

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Karson Krause 7.0-6-3-1-1-10