MADISON – Groton found itself in an early hole and was never able to quite get out of it at the Class B American Legion State Baseball Tournament Saturday afternoon.
Volga scored three runs before Groton came up to bat, and held off multiple rallies to claim a 4-3 victory in the double-elimination tourney.
Volga added an important insurance run in the top of the fourth, before Groton got its offense going.
The Tigers scored a run in the bottom of the fourth on a walk, a Gavin Englund double, and an RBI single from TC Schuster. However, Groton left the bases full to end the inning.
Groton closed the deficit even further with two runs in the fifth. Schuster drove in another run with a single, and an error produced another run. However, that was all the scoring Groton could muster off of Volga starter Damon Uecker who pitched 6.1 innings.
“Uecker is pretty good. He’s nothing flashy. He throws a lot of strikes and keeps the ball around the strike zone,” said Groton coach Pat Krause. “He got us to fly out and ground out a lot. We battled though.”
Groton received a strong pitching performance from Alex Abeln, who went the distance and kept Volga within reach.
“Alex made an adjustment after that tough first inning,” Krause said. “He started mixing his off speed pitches more early in the counts and was effective with it.”
Groton threatened in the bottom of the seventh, but again left the bases loaded when the contest ended.
“We left too many guys on base. We had bases loaded three different times and only were able to get a couple of runs,” Krause said. “We needed guys to come up with a big hit and just didn’t happen today.”
Schuster finished with three hits and drove in a pair.
Groton will now take on Dakota Valley at noon today in an elimination contest.
“This one stings,” Krause said, “but we will regroup and move on.”
Volga 300 100 0 – 4 8 2
Groton 000 120 0 – 3 7 3
Damon Uecker, Kameron Hauck (7) and Broden Teske; Alex Abeln and Karsten Fliehs. 2B – Volga, B. Milton; Groton, Gavin Englund, Jordan Schwan. 3B – Volga, Wyatt Hardt.
Schuster 3 hits, 2 RBI
