VFW sweeps Albert Lea, Byron
Owatonna pitcher Jace Ulrich winds up to fire a pitch toward home plate against Byron. Owatonna VFW sept two games against Albert Lea and one against Byron last weekend to advance to the district tournament this upcoming weekend. Staff photo by Sevy Enter
Owatonna’s VFW baseball team went 3-0 in its playoff games over the weekend with a win over Byron and two wins over Albert Lea.
The squad managed to beat Albert Lea 9-3 on Saturday before the team’s second game against Byron was suspended and pushed to Sunday with Byron leading 7-3 in the top of the fourth inning.
Pitcher Connor Wiese handled duties on the mound for Owatonna against Albert Lea by tossing 6.2 innings of three-hit baseball, allowing three runs and striking out six.
Wiese also led the team on offense with two hits, two runs, and an RBI, while teammate Tanner Smith accounted for one hit, two runs, and two RBIs.
On Sunday, Owatonna started its day by completing the game against Byron ahead of facing Albert Lea once more.
A break in the action proved to be what Owatonna needed against Byron as the team flipped the score from 7-3 to 15-7 in three innings of work to earn the win.
Key to Owatonna’s win was a three-run bottom of the fourth to make the score 7-6 in favor of Byron shortly after play resumed.
Owatonna managed to secure the tying run in the seventh inning before exploding for an eight-run bottom of the sixth, which left Byron searching for runs.
Byron was unable to answer in the seventh, giving Owatonna the comeback win.
Pitcher Tayte Berg was excellent in relief for Owatonna and pitched 3.2 innings without allowing a run to go with seven strikeouts.
Wiese sparked Owatonna’s offense with four hits, three runs, and two RBIs.
In the team’s final game against Albert Lea, the squad had to dig deep again.
Owatonna put the pressure on early by securing two runs in the first inning but trailed soon after when Albert Lea scored four runs in the second to lead 4-2.
Albert Lea led 5-4 through six innings before some clutch hitting by Owatonna extended the game.
Berg kept Owatonna alive with a two-out double before Smith knocked him home with a single to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh inning.
After holding Albert Lea scoreless in the top of the eighth, some crucial mistakes by Albert Lea’s pitcher helped push Owatonna to victory.
A leadoff walk, a hit batter, and an intentional walk in the first three at-bats in the bottom of the eighth loaded the bases for Owatonna before Bentley Arvig’s walk-off walk brought home the game-winning run for Owatonna VFW.
Owatonna will play again the weekend of July 29-30 at Dartts Park.
Game times and opponents were not made available at the time of press.