Early spurt sends Flandreau past Menno in first round of state amateur baseball tourney

Aug. 8—MITCHELL — An early surge, including seven runs in the first three innings, sent the Flandreau Cardinals to the second round of the Class B state amateur baseball tournament after a 7-2 win over Menno on Sunday morning at Cadwell Park.

In the first inning, Flandreau was able to score its first run of the game after a line drive single to right field by Aiden Ladd brought Jacob Patterson home. In the second inning, Menno committed an error in the infield and walked two batters, helping Flandreau tack on another run. The Cardinals' Grant Hieb hit a single to left field that helped score another run and give Flandreau a 3-0 lead after two.

At the top of the third inning, Keith Cutler, Beau Severtson and Nate Kneebone notched base hits while three other batters were walked at the plate, allowing Flandreau to score four more runs and extend their lead to seven. Menno managed to score one run in the sixth and seventh inning, but couldn't fully recover from the 7-point deficit. Menno committed five errors and had six hits in the contest, while Flandreau recorded nine hits and two errors.

"We got an early lead and I feel that puts a lot of pressure on teams when that happens," said Flandreau coach Bret Severtson. "The pitchers set the tone for us all game and we had defenders across the field so we knew we were going to be OK as they made a run later in the game. We didn't overwork any of our pitchers while limiting their opportunities, so we played a good game."

Cutler and Ladd had two hits each for the Cardinals, while Kneebone drove in a game-high two runs. Hieb, Kneebone, Beau Severtson, Jordan Gesling and Brian McGuire all had one hit each in the win. Dallas Schneiderman limited Menno to just hits in his four innings pitched, while Drew Weber gave up four hits in five innings pitched.

For Menno, Dylan Lehr had two hits while Macon Oplinger, Spencer Schultz, Jamison Kleinsasser and Dustin Livington had one hit apiece. Doug Hall took the loss at the mound for the Mad Frogs, surrendering five earned runs on five hits in 2 1/3 innings pitched. Kleinsasser surrendered four hits and walked two batters in 6 2/3 innings pitched.

Flandreau will play Kimball/White Lake next in the second round of the tournament, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, August 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Cadwell Park.