Kreis, Jimmies rout Blue Hawks in DAC tourney

• Alex Kreis

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Jamestown College pitcher Alex Kreis tossed a three-hitter while striking out nine to beat Dickinson State on Wednesday night in the Dakota Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Southside Municipal Ballpark.
• Derek Carley

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson State junior outfielder Derek Carley watches his home run against Jamestown College on on Wednesday night in the Dakota Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Southside Municipal Ballpark. It was one of only three DSU hits in a 13-3 loss.

Talk about it

Jamestown College ace Alex Kreis wasn’t going to let giving up a first-inning home run fluster him.

The right-hander whom Dickinson State coach Andy Emard calls the Dakota Athletic Conference’s pitcher of the year shook it off and slammed the Blue Hawks while his batters backed him up Wednesday night during the second round of the DAC tournament at Southside Municipal Ballpark.

Kreis struck out nine while giving up three hits in a complete game. At the plate, Jesse Ramirez and Griffin Sweazey each drove in four runs and the third-seeded Jimmies handed DSU starter Ryan Crossingham his first loss of the season as they piled on the runs late to claim a 13-3 victory in eight innings.

“You run into an arm like that, you need things to go your way,” Emard said of facing Kreis. “You need a little luck.”

The second-seeded Blue Hawks (21-14) didn’t get much of that.

Their luckiest bounce of the night came when junior right fielder Derek Carley’s two-run homer in the first inning hit the protective tubing on top of the left-field fence and bounced into the brushes outside the stadium to give the Blue Hawks a 2-0 lead.

That was as good as it would get for DSU.

The Jimmies (27-10) chased Crossingham in the fifth after the top of the order sparked a four-run rally.

Up to that point, Crossingham had been solid, striking out five. He fell to 5-1 on the season.

“Crossingham has been tough on us,” Jamestown coach Tom Hager said. “We talked about the type of game plan we wanted to have against him. I’m proud that we were able to execute that game plan. Then we got contributions up and down the lineup.”

With the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth, Ramirez — Jamestown clean-up hitter — tied the game at 2-2 with a hard grounder up the middle.

Andy Racus added a run on a sacrifice fly to deep left and Jesse Mayfield put the Jimmies ahead 4-2 on a first-pitch single to right.

“We knew as a team, going into today, it was going to be a big game, an absolute fistfight,” Kreis said. “We had to battle every inning. We had to keep the intensity throughout the whole game.”

Jamestown added two runs in the sixth when a hard-hit ball by Sweazey bounced off the pitchers mound and was bobbled by DSU shortstop Derrick Gunderson — one of his three errors — scoring Andy Scott and Joe Perez to make it 6-2.

The Jimmies put the game to bed in the eighth, when the scored seven runs with no outs.

Left-handed reliever Matt Burwell was yanked after loading the bases for Keith Woebler, who commenced the scoring barrage with an RBI single up the middle on just the second pitch off reliever Bobby Santoyo.

Two runs scored when Sweazey belted a single to deep left center and Ramirez smashed a two-run double to the right-center field wall on the next at bat, giving the Jimmies an 11-2 advantage.

Racus piled it on, carrying a two-run homer to left field on the ensuing at bat to give Jamestown a 13-2 advantage.

Kreis, the DAC’s leader in earned-run average and strikeouts, settled in after the first and gave up just one hit after the first inning.

That came in the eighth when Justin Elizondo doubled.

Carley, the DAC’s batting leader and team leader with five home runs, added an RBI in the eighth when he drove in Elizondo and reached on a throwing error at first.

“What are you going to do?” Emard said. “They start to build a lead and then you eliminate some small-ball stuff with that.”

The Blue Hawks face Valley City State at 1 p.m. today in a loser-out game. Jamestown meets Mayville State at 4 p.m. for a spot in the championship game.

The game began at 8:15 p.m., about an hour and 15 minutes after it was scheduled to start because it was the last of four games.

JC 000 042 07 — 13 15 2

DSU 200 000 00 — 3 3 4

Alex Kreis and Joe Perez. Ryan Crossingham, Matt Burwell (5), Bobby Santoyo (8) and Travis Setere. W–Kreis. L–Crossingham. HR–JC, Andy Racus; DSU, Derek Carley.

Highlights: JC, Kreis CG, 9 K, 2 BB, 3 H, 2 ER; Max Boe 2-for-4, 3 runs; Griffen Sweazey 2-for-5, 4 RBI, 2 runs; Jesse Ramirez 4-for-5, 4 RBI, 2 runs; Racus 1-for-4, HR, 3 RBI; Jesse Mayfield 1-for-5, RBI. DSU, Russell Graham 1-for-4, run; Justin Elizondo 1-for-1, run; Derek Carley 1-for-4, HR, 3 RBI; Crossingham 4.1 IP, 5 K, 1 BB, 4 ER, 8 H.

Mayville State 15, Minot State 10

Minot State avoided being ousted by the 10-run rule, but it couldn’t overcome Mayville State in a second-round game.

Mayville State scored 11 runs in the third inning and added their other four in the sixth break out to a 15-4 lead going into the top of the seventh.

Jake McLain had a two-run single and Alex Berry had a two-run double in the third as the Comets piled on eight of their 15 hits. Mark Kuzyk wrapped up the sixth with a two-run double.

Minot State’s Jaret Chatwood hit a two-run homer to straightaway center over the 370-foot sign to punctuate a five-run seventh inning that kept the Beavers in the game.

Andrew Lochhead had a solo homer in the third for Minot State.

MiSU 002 200 010 — 10 16 1

MaSU 00(11) 004 000 —15 15 2

Tanner Lorenz, Brody Pinkerton (3), Paul Thompson (3), Joel Peterman (3), Seddon (6) and Moughtin. Jones, Weinhagen (7), Drews (8) and Tomblin. W–Jones. L–Lorenz. HR–MSU, Chatwood, Lochhead.

Highlights: MiSU, Gilmour 3-for-6, RBI, run; Mesh 2-for-6, RBI, run; Hornecker 1-for-3, 2 RBI, run; Chatwood 4-for-5, 2 RBI, HR, 2 runs; Moughtin 2-for-5, RBI, run; Houston 1-for-4, 2 RBI. MaSU, Kuzyk 3-for-3, 3 RBI, 2 runs; Berry 1-for-3, 2 RBI, 2 runs; McLain 2-for-5, 3 RBI, 2 runs; Alvernaz 3-for-5, 2 RBI, run; Bauer 2-for-4, 2 RBI; Ferraro 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 runs; Tomblin 1-for-2, 2 runs.

Jamestown College 12, Dakota State 2 (8 inn.)

Sweazey hit a pair of two-run homers in back-to-back innings as Jamestown College perked up from a slow start to defeat No. 6 seed Dakota State in eight innings via the 10-run rule.

Sweazey hit them both to left field in the sixth and seventh innings as Jamestown piled on the runs following a scoreless first three innings.

Dakota State jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third when Ryan Steffensen’s RBI single brought home Chaz Palmer.

But, the Jimmies buckled down and moved on to the winner’s bracket. They took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on Racus’ two-run double. Ramirez was 3-for-5 and had a solo homer in the seventh.

The Jimmies ended things in the eighth when Jesse Mayfield scored on a wild pitch.

Dakota State (3-36) plays Minot State at 10 a.m. today in a loser-out game.

DaSU 101 000 00 — 2 8 4

JC 000 133 32 — 12 17 0

Doxey, Womack (5), Lee (7). Hardy, Grubb (5), Stewart (8) and Sweazey. W–Grubb. L–Womack. HR–JC, Sweazy (2), Ramirez.

Highlights: DaSU, Steffensen 2-for-3, RBI, run, BB; Hargrove 1-for-4, RBI. JC, Boe 1-for-5, 2 RBI, run; Sweazey 2-for-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 runs; Ramirez 3-for-5, HR, RBI, 3 runs; Racus 3-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 runs; Wilkinson 2-for-5, RBI; Penner 2-for-4, RBI, run; Scott 1-for-4, RBI; Hardy 4 IP, 5 H, 6 K, 1 BB, 2 ER; Grubb 3 IP, 2 H, 5 K, 2 BB, 0 ER.

Minot State 19, Valley City State 9 (8)

An 11-run sixth-inning put Minot State in command and it shut the game down early via the 10-run rule following a three-run eighth in the tournament’s opener.

The Beavers came into the sixth trailing 7-5. That changed when pinch-hitter Levi Kerns hit a three-run homer. They rolled from there.

Scott Peters added another three-run home run and six VCSU errors contributed to five Minot State runs in the inning.

Ryne Hornecker was 5-for-6 with four RBI and scored a pair of runs to lead the Beavers.

Michael Danielson and Brenden Shearer each drove in a pair of runs for the Vikings (13-21).

MSU 311 00(11) 03 — 19 16 2

VCSU 232 000 11 — 9 14 8

Friesen, Krahler (2) and Moughtin. Nelson, Waldner (6), Rodriguez (8) and Connell. W–Krahler. L–Nelson. HR–MSU, Kerns, Peters.

Highlights: MSU, Gilmour 1-for-5, 3 RBI, 4 runs, SB; Kerns 1-for-1, HR, 3 RBI; Hornecker 5-for-6, 2B, 4 RBI, 2 runs; Peters 3-for-5, HR, 3 RBI, run; Olson 2-for-5, 2B, RBI, 2 runs; Krahler 6 1/3 IP, 9 H, 7 K, 1 BB, 3 ER. VCSU, Connell 2-for-3, RBI, 2 runs; Danielson 2-for-4, 2 RBI, Shearer 1-for-1, 2 RBI; Vandoorne 2-for-3, RBI, run, SB; Nelson 5 IP, 11 H, 4 K, 2 BB, 11 ER.

Dakota Athletic Conference baseball tournament

At Southside Municipal Ballpark, Dickinson

Games Wednesday

1) No. 5 Minot State 19, No. 4 Valley City State 9 (8 innings)

2) No. 3 Jamestown College 12, No. 6 Dakota State 2 (8 innings)

3) No. 1 Mayville State 15, Minot State 10

4) Jamestown College 13, No. 2 Dickinson State 3 (8 innings)

Games today

5) Dakota State vs. Minot State, 10 a.m.

6) Valley City State vs. Dickinson State, 1 p.m.

7) Mayville State vs. Jamestown College, 4 p.m.

8) Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 7 p.m.

Games Friday

9) Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 winner, 10 a.m.

Championship: Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 1 p.m.

Game Saturday

Second championship: If Championship loser’s first loss was in 1 p.m. game, 1 p.m.

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