SHAKOPEE — Another dominant outing by Payton VanBeck has the Elrosa Saints in the Class C state amateur baseball tournament semifinals.
VanBeck struck out 13 over 8-1/3 innings to lift the Saints to a 3-2 win over the Glencoe Brewers on Friday night at Joe Schleper Stadium.
Elrosa faces the Hanska Lakers at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in New Prague. Hanska advanced with a 5-3 win over the Windom Pirates.
Ethan Mueller paced the Saints’ offense, going 3-for-4 with a double. Jackson Peter had two hits, including a double, a run and an RBI. Luke Illies hit a double and drove in a run in the victory.
Glencoe 000 000 002-2 3 0
Hitting – Glencoe: Teddy Petersen 0-3 rbi bb sb, Jake Christianson 2-3 rbi bb sb, Kalin Jochum 1-4 r, Zach Voelz 0-3 r bb … Elrosa : Jackson Peter 2-4 2b r rbi, Ethan Mueller 3-4 2b, Ashton Dingmann 0-2 rbi, Luke Illies 1-3 2b rbi bb, Gavin Kampsen 1-4, Peyton Winter 1-3 2b r, Blaine Fischer 0-2 r bb
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) – Glencoe: Nick Hays (L) 4.2-6-3-3-2-3, Jacob Ryan 2.1-1-0-0-1-3, Luke Koschinska (Hamburg draftee) 1-1-0-0-0-0 … Elrosa: Payton VanBeck (W) 8.1-3-2-2-7-13, Wyatt Steffensen 0-0-0-0-0-0, Dingmann (Sv) 0.2-0-0-0-0-0
Starbuck’s Darion Alexander completed the cycle with an RBI double that tied it up with Glencoe in the bottom of the ninth inning. Then in the bottom of the 11th, the Stars’ Matt Gruber hit a one-out single that scored Luke Danielson for the walk-off win over the Brewers at New Prague Memorial Park.
The Stars play the Fairmont Martins in the Class C semifinals at 4 p.m. Saturday back at New Prague. Fairmont beat the Richmond Royals 9-1 on Friday night in Chaska.
Alexander was 4-for-6 with five RBIs and a run scored. He hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh.
Austin Ver Steeg struck out seven over 7-2/3 innings in a no-decision for Starbuck. Colin Richards got the win, striking out five over 3-1/3 scoreless innings.
Luxemburg 220 000 010 0x-5 9 2
Starbuck 000 100 301 01-6 12 2
Hitting – Luxemburg: Max Kiffmeyer 1-5 r, JT Harren 2-5, Derrik Orth 0-4 r bb, Easton Peters 2-4 r rbi, Brady Kenning 0-0 r, Jacob Stalboerger 2-5 rbi-2, Ethyn Fruth 2-4 r… Starbuck: Matt Gruber 1-5 bb, Darion Alexander 4-6 hr 2b 3b r rbi-5, Austin Ver Steeg 1-5 r, Noah Jensen 1-4 rbi, Jackson Hendrickson 1-5, PJ Johnson 3-4 2b, Cameron Simon 0-0 r, Marc Gruber 0-0 r, Luke Danielson 1-2 r-2
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) – Luxemburg: Reed Pfannenstein 9-10-5-5-1-12, Stalboerger (L) 1.1-2-1-1-0-2 … Starbuck: Ver Steeg 7.2-8-5-2-1-7, Colin Richards (W) 3.1-1-0-0-1-5
Joe Brown is a sports reporter for the West Central Tribune.
He can be reached via email at: jbrown@wctrib.com or his office number: 320-214-4332.