Amateur Baseball: Aces tally big inning in win versus Hager City

The first four innings between Red Wing and Hager City crawled along Friday at the Red Wing Athletic Field.

Both teams stranded a combined 14 runners on base in the opening frames but in the fifth inning, the Aces blew the game open with nine runs en route to an 11-0, seven-inning victory.

Red Wing left 11 runners on base but it didn’t matter as the Aces pounded out 13 hits.

“The beginning of this game was kind of slow,” Red Wing co-manager Jimmy Bohmbach said. “But we stayed in the game. … We were able to be patient and wait for good pitches and hit it hard.”

Bohmbach finished 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI while Zach Laffey went 2-for-4 with two doubles off the right field fence and an RBI to lead the Aces (18-14, 1-8 Section 1B). Josh Thygesen was 1-for-2 with a two-run double and Jake Laffey had a pinch-hit triple with a run scored.

Brady Schroeder started on the mound for Red Wing and held Hager City to two hits and four walks while striking out six. As he was in his last start against Moorhead, Schroeder’s control wavered in the early innings and it got him into trouble but he managed to keep Hager City scoreless. Bohmbach said the team nicknamed him “The Bulldog” because he continues to get himself in jams early and come out unscathed.

“Once again, I felt like I needed to grind it out,” Schroeder said. “If I get in trouble, I got to throw strikes. When I throw strikes they’re going to put the ball in play. The defense has just been making great plays.”

Aaron Johnson struck out three in the seventh inning to close out the victory.

Both teams threatened to score in each of the first four innings but the only run came on an error by the Skeeters’ catcher to score Kyle Blahnik in the fourth inning. Hager City stranded seven runners in the first four innings against Schroeder and James Georgakas kept the Aces silent except for the unearned run in the fourth. Georgakas received the loss despite allowing just the one unearned run in four innings. He gave up four hits and two walks to go along with four strikeouts.

“He was doing a good job of keeping it outside to right-handed hitters,” Bohmbach said. “He was teasing us a little.”

When Georgakas came out of the game, Red Wing took advantage. It took until the fifth inning for the Aces to register an RBI but they used two errors by the Skeeters in that inning to push across nine runs on six hits, including three doubles. Red Wing sent 13 hitters to the plate with 10 straight reaching base against Austin Johnson to put the Aces up 10-0.

“It was a little more our hitting speed,” Bohmbach said.

Red Wing added one more run in the sixth inning after Jake Laffey led off with a triple and came around to score on a wild pitch.

The Aces will attempt to keep their torrid hitting stretch going, which Bombach said started at the Shakopee/Jordan tournament last weekend. Red Wing plays Dundas Sunday at the Red Wing Athletic Field.

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