VFW Baseball: Post 7662 dealt early exit from Sub-District tourney

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When the Farmington VFW baseball team played solid defense this season, it won ball games. But when the defense faltered, the team suffered the majority of its 14 losses.

That’s what happened last week when Post 7662, missing three regulars and playing with five players from the Farmington 15-under squad, saw its season come to a close with two losses in the Sub-District Tournament in Hastings. Two misjudged fly balls led to three late runs for fifth-seeded Holy Family in Thursday’s opening-round 5-3 game, then another misplay in the outfield opened the floodgates Friday in an 18-3 loss to second-seeded Hastings.

“It was kind of a fitting way to end it, the way our season went,” first-year coach Jared Rowan said. “When we played defense, we could play with anybody, but teams like Hastings, you can’t give them that much. Three misjudged fly balls in two games cost us big time.”

It was a 3-1 game with two outs in the top of the third of Friday’s game when the final misplayed fly ball allowed Hastings to turn a zero into a five-run inning and take an 8-1 lead. Two more errors to open the fourth set the table for an eight-run fourth.

“We had them at 3-1 going into the bottom of the third, then that play kind of deflated the kids,” Rowan said. “They made us pay for not making the plays we should have made.”

Farmington briefly tied the score at 1-1 in the top of the second when Quinn Eden singled and scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Jonathan Ellis. An inning later, Eden brought in a run with a sacrifice fly and 15-under player Ryan Schoening ripped an RBI single, one of his four hits in the tournament.

Another 15-under player, Jake Eldred, got the start on the mound and worked three-plus innings. Eden came on in relief and allowed seven runs over the final two innings.

Ellis, also a 15-under player, kept Farmington in the game in the tournament opener Thursday with seven strong innings. He allowed six hits and struck out eight batters while walking two.

Post 7662 (11-14) took an early lead with two runs in the bottom of the second. Schoening led off with a walk, moved to second on a Cole Lusky single and scored the first run on Austin Sutter’s single. Matt Molitor followed with a single of his own to make it 2-1.

With the score tied 2-2, Farmington tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth. Jack Buss walked led off the inning with a walk and scored on Stephen Barber’s triple.

Tags: sports, baseball, vfw