Post 15 to face Fosston in opening round of tournament

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Frazee Post 15 secured three wins in three days to take third place in the Northwest South sub-state tournament last weekend. 

Post 15 defeated Pelican Rapids by a score of 2-1 in the opening game of the tournament, before falling to Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 6-2 in the semi-finals. 

The loss dropped Frazee to the elimination bracket where they defeated Barnesville 9-6 and Hawley 9-4 to come away with third place and capture the third of four qualifiers from their sub-state in this weekend’s tournament. 

The Northwest sub-state tournament will be held in Crookson and Frazee will take on Fosston, who is the second seed from the north sub state. In the opening round of the tournament. The game is scheduled for Thursday at 4 p.m. in Crookston. The winner of the game will take on either Thief River Falls or Wadena on Friday at 1:30 p.m., while the loser will be eliminated from the tournament. 

Friday

A pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning would be all the run support Karson Krause would need as Post 15 defeated Pelican Rapids by a score of 2-1. 

Frazee loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the first inning, before Krause connected on a two-run single to give Post 15 a 2-0 lead. Pelican Rapids scored its lone run in the top of the sixth inning and had runners on second and third base with two outs in the top of the seventh inning, but Asher Blaine shut the door on the comeback effort has he struck out the final two batters of the game to preserve a 2-1 win. 

Krause picked up the win as he went six innings and gave up nine hits, one earned run and struck out two batters. Blaine secured the save by pitching one inning and striking out two batters.

Frazee picked up just two hits in the win off the bat of Krause and Blaine.

AB R H     BI

Andrew Aho 2 1 0 0

Asher Blaine 3 1 1 0

Noah Mekalson 2 0 0 0

Karson Krause 3 0 1 2

Drew Mekalson 3 0 0 0

Blake Sonnenberg 3 0 0 0

Dawson Lyman 3 0 0 0

Adam Vigen 1 0 0 0

Mason Mickelson 3 0 0 0

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Karson Krause 6.0-9-1-1-1-2, Asher Blaine 1.0-0-0-0-2

Saturday

Andrew Aho connected with an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning to tie Frazee’s game with Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton at 2-2, but the tie game wouldn’t last long as DGF scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning to come away with a 6-2 win.

The loss dropped Frazee to the elimination bracket.

Blaine took the loss on the mound as he went 4 2/3 innings and gave up three hits, five runs of which four were earned, while walking six and striking out six more batters. 

AB R H     BI

Andrew Aho 4 0 1 1

Asher Blaine 3 0 0 0

Noah Mekalson 3 0 1 1

Karson Krause 3 0 0 0

Blake Sonnenberg 3 0 1 0

Drew Mekalson 3 0 1 0

Adam Vigen 3 0 1 0

Mason Mickelson 3 0 0 0

Dawson Lyman 2 2 1 0

HITTING- 2B- Dawson Lyman, Andrew Aho

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Asher Blaine 4.2-3-5-4-6-6, Dawson Lyman 1.0-2-1-0-2-0, Blake Sonnenberg 0.1-0-0-0-1-0

Sunday

Frazee secured its place in the sub-state district tournament with a pair of wins on Sunday.

With the score tied at 2-2 against Barnesville, Frazee broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth inning with five runs courtesy of an error, a three-run home run off the bat of Asher Blaine and an RBI double by Karson Krause to make the score 7-2. 

Barnesville cut the score to 7-6 with a four run inning in the top of the sixth inning, before Drew Mekalson connected with a two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game on ice by a score of 9-6.

Krause and Blake Sonneberg led the way offensively with two hits, while Noah Mekalson picked up the win on the mound by going 5 1/3 innings and giving up eight hits, four runs of which three were earned and striking out four batters. Drew Mekalson pitched 1/3 of an inning and gave up a pair of unearned runs, before Adam Vigen pitched 1 1/3 inning and gave up one hit and three strikeouts.

Post 15 secured third place in the sub-district title with a commanding 9-4 win over Hawley. A pair of big innings proved to be the difference for Post 15, which included three runs in the third inning and four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. 

Among the highlights was a two-run single with two outs by Drew Mekalson in the bottom of the third inning, an RBI single by Asher Blaine in the fourth inning that tied the game at 4-4, as well as a two-run single with the bases loaded by Vigen in the bottom of the fifth inning to give Post 15 the lead 6-4. Andrew Aho added a two-run single to make the score 8-4 and secure the win for Frazee. 

Frazee was led by Aho, Blaine, Krause and Sonnenberg who all finished with two hits, while Mekalson finished with three RBIs in the win. 

AB R H     BI

Andrew Aho 3 1 0 1

Asher Blaine 3 1 1 3

Noah Mekalson 2 2 1 0

Karson Krause 4 1 2 1

Conner Erickson 3 1 1 1

Drew Mekalson 4 1 1 2

Blake Sonnenberg 3 1 2 0

Adam Vigen 1 0 0 0

Dawson Lyman 2 1 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Karson Krause, Conner Erickson

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Noah Mekalson 5.1-8-4-3-1-4, Drew Mekalson 0.1-1-2-0-1-0, Adam Vigen 1.1-1-0-0-1-3