Amateur Baseball: U.S. Military All-Stars rally past Aces

When the Red Wing Aces took on the U.S. Military All-Stars Tuesday at the Red Wing Athletic Field the focus wasn’t primarily on baseball, but instead on those who served the country.

The U.S. Military All-Stars made their way to Red Wing as part of their tour through the country. The team, which consists of players from different branches of the military, many of whom have college baseball experience, made earlier stops in Minnesota towns and has played in more than 45 states and eight countries. The team was formed in 1990 and plays around 100 games annually.

“Baseball is really 10 percent of what we do, but it’s the conduit to how we can communicate,” U.S. Military All-Stars manager Crash Allvord said.

The All-Stars got an opportunity to meet with community members before and after the game. The pregame ceremonies included a “Passing the Flag” ceremony, along with a “Walk of Honor” ceremony.

The All-Stars also got a 4-3, 11-inning victory on the evening, pushing the winning run across with two outs on a single from Brandon Bradford.

“They’re a good ball club,” Red Wing player-co-manager Andy Gibart said. “You could tell with their at-bats. I think they were missing a few guys, they had a couple of pitchers in the lineup but overall they make the plays defensively and they can swing it a little bit. It was a good competitive game for us.”

The All-Stars had 16 hits in the game and got the leadoff man on in the 11th on an infield pop up that dropped. Juan Apriatico hit the pop up and took second when no one covered the bag.

The Aces (17-14, 1-8 Section 1B) had a seven-game winning streak snapped in way the team had seen before. Red Wing led 3-2 heading into the top of the ninth inning but Corey Strong hit an RBI double to score Neil Herman to tie the game.

The Aces had chances to win the game in the late innings but couldn’t find the clutch hit it had found last weekend. Red Wing advanced Jordan Warren to third base in the ninth but couldn’t get him across. Then in the 10th inning Jake Laffey and Jimmy Bohmbach gave the Aces runners on second and third with two outs for Zach Laffey. Zach Laffey launched a pitch to right field that Strong caught on the warning track to end the inning.

“We had a chance in the last couple of innings,” Gibart said. “We battled, which is one good thing.”

Gibart threw nine innings and allowed three runs, two earned on 10 hits, walked none and struck out one. Steve Boldt came on in relief in the 10th inning and allowed one run on six hits and struck out two.

Red Wing grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Bohmbach’s RBI double to score Adam Thygesen.

The All-Stars came back in the second for a run and took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning.

The Aces regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth after Boldt scored on a wild pitch and Kyle Blahnik drove in Bohmbach with a single.

“It’s good for a July game like this, getting a good team like this coming off a tournament where we played some good teams to have another competitive game like this,” Gibart said.

Red Wing will face Hager City Friday in Red Wing.

Tags: amateur baseball, red wing, sports, proam