MILBANK – Groton is headed back to the State B American Legion Baseball Tournament after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Sisseton in the Region 1B championship on Thursday afternoon.

Groton ended up going undefeated in four games during the region.

“We knew we had a tough draw having to play the first game of the tournament,” said Groton coach Pat Krause, “but we are fortunate that we have the pitching depth to handle it. Our guys played really good team baseball this tournament.”

Runs were hard to come by in the title game.

Groton scored single runs in the second and third innings. Lincoln Krause drew a bases-loaded walk to push across a run in the second. Jordan Schwan walked, Carter Simon doubled, and Schwan came in a ground out by Gavin Englund in the third.

Sisseton scored its lone run in the top of the sixth when Rylan Anderson singled, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on a single by LJ Crooks. However, Sisseton left the bases loaded in the first and sixth innings, and left two men on in the fourth.

Englund struck out seven batters in 5.2 innings before Braeden Fliehs closed the door from there.

“We had a lot of contributions both on offense and defense from multiple guys,” Coach Krause said. “Our young guys really stepped up for us. Especially our pitching. Our pitching staff was as good as I’ve seen it all year.”

Jarrett Erdmann, Alex Abeln, and TC Schuster had strong outings in Groton’s other wins in the tourney.

“We played four games and only used five pitchers,” Coach Krause said. “Our starters were able to go deep into games or get complete games. Then we just had to use one reliever and he did exactly what he needed to do for the team.”

Groton will now compete in the state tournament starting next weekend in Madison.

Sisseton 000 001 0 – 1 5 0

Groton 011 000 x- 2 4 2

LJ Crooks and Kellen Rempp; Gavin Englund, Braden Fliehs (6) and Karsten Fliehs. 2B – Groton, Carter Simon.

REGION 6B AT WEBSTER

Clark-Willow Lake was able to force a second championship game before finally succumbing to Volga in Region 6B.

CWL, which fell to Volga in the opening round, picked up a 6-4 win in the first title contest. Volga then captured the championship with a 9-7 victory to move on to the state tournament.

Clark-Willow Lake broke a 3-3 tie with three runs in the top of the sixth in the first game. Jakob Steen and Damien Severson each had RBI hits in the frame.

Cooper Pommer, Steen, Damien Severson, Bennett Pommer each had two hits in the contest.

Clark-Willow Lake jumped out to a two-run lead in the top of the first in the second championship game. However, Volga scored three runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, and three more in the sixth to help secure the victory.

Bret Milton had three hits and drove in three runs for Volga.

Cooper Pommer and Cade Gaikowski each had two hits for Clark-Willow Lake.

Clark-Willow Lake 200 111 2 – 7 6 3

Volga 001 323 x – 9 12 4

Cooper Pommer, Bennett Pommer (4), Jakob Steen 6) and Steen, Ky Vandersnick; Broden Teske, Andrew Gunderson (7) and Regan Schwartz. 2B – Clark-Willow Lake, Cade Gaikowski, Cooper Pommer.

Clark-Willow Lake 100 023 0 – 6 13 1

Volga 100 020 1 – 4 11 0

Will Hovde, Cooper Pommer (5) and Jakob Steen; Wyatt Hardt, Kellon Tucker (6) and Regan Schwartz. 2B – Clark-Willow Lake, Steen; Volga, Hardt.