Waite Park defeats Dickinson for title

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LYONS, Kan. — Dickinson’s trip to the 11-year-old Cal Ripken Midwest Plains Regional baseball tournament ended in disappointment Monday night.

Waite Park, Minn., allowed just three hits and defeated the Mustangs 14-0 in four innings in the championship game.

“Waite Park is a great team,” Dickinson coach Jason Hopfauf said. “They had a pitcher that threw harder than anybody we’ve seen the entire season. They have a great ballclub of hitters.

“We started catching up to them at the end of the game and started to hit, but by that time it was a little too late.”

Waite Park reached the 10-and-under Cal Ripken World Series last summer. The winner of this game does not advance to a World Series.

Cameron Jorda had a double while Mike Herauf and Jacob Koskovich added singles in the loss to Waite Park.

Dickinson reached the title game by defeating Yankton, S.D., 8-7 on Monday morning in the semifinals.

Against Yankton, Jack Hanstad went 4-for-4 and scored two runs while Jorda and Shawn Steffan drove in two runs. Koskovich, Jerzy Martin and Tanner Ouellette all had two hits.

Dickinson jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning, but Yankton reclaimed the lead by scoring five runs in the second.

Tied at 7 in the bottom of the sixth, Dickinson pinch runner Matthew Tessier scored the winning run after the Yankton pitcher’s throwing error to first base.

With runners at first and second base, Brendan Butterfield’s bunt attempt popped to pitcher, who tried throwing out Martin at first base. The throw was wild and Tessier scrambled from second base to score.

The Mustangs also beat the Missouri Lightning all-star team 6-5 in eight innings Sunday to win their pool.

Steffan hit a two-run homer to tie it at 3-3 in the fifth inning. Herauf and Koskovich each had two singles and drove in a run.

Koskovich’s RBI wasn’t traditional. But it was timely.

He was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, which allowed the winning run to score.

“Very exciting games that were down to the last inning, with some clutch hits to make it all happen,” Hopfauf said of the games against Missouri and Yankton.

Jorda, Koskovich and Steffan were named to the all-tournament team.

The Mustangs end their season with a 27-3 record against 11-year-old teams.

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