Minot’s sweep keeps Roughriders winless at Southside
The Dickinson Roughriders know they are playing at home in August. The trouble is, home hasn’t been so sweet for the American Legion baseball team. The Minot Vistas, on the other hand, have become accustomed to playing on the road.By: Dustin Monke, The Dickinson Press
- Aaron Berg
The Dickinson Roughriders know they are playing at home in August. The trouble is, home hasn’t been so sweet for the American Legion baseball team.
The Minot Vistas, on the other hand, have become accustomed to playing on the road.
It showed Thursday night as Minot took advantage of Southside Municipal Ballpark’s short left and right fields, hitting two home runs in each game of the statewide doubleheader to earn 6-3 and 9-5 victories.
“As of late, we’ve been playing pretty good baseball,” said Trevor Gust, who 3-for-3 with two homers to left field and five RBI in the second game.
Minot (8-17, 7-9 statewide) is making a late-season surge despite the cities’ flooding having kept them off the friendly confines of Corbett Field since June 19.
Dickinson, on the other hand, has yet to win a home game this season. The Roughriders are 0-8 at Southside and host state standings leading Williston today.
Roughriders coach Andy Emard said despite the team’s overall solid defensive play against Minot, they lacked in the one area they’ve been able to rely on most this season — their hitting.
“We had a lot of mistakes that happened offensively, at the plate (and) base running a little bit,” Emard said.
It didn’t help that Minot fell into a groove at the plate, handing Dickinson pitchers Korey Kallenbach and Aaron Berg complete-game losses.
Minot’s Alex Fornshell had a solo home run to lead off the first game. The Vistas went up 5-0 in the second after Marcus Quist singled home Fornshell and Gust plated Quist and Ethan Stein.
Dickinson fought back though as Aaron Berg drove in a run on a bloop single in the bottom of the second. Taylor Thiel added a run on a balk by Vistas pitcher Austin Bernston.
Tevin Rettig-Papineau singled home a run in the third to cut the Vistas’ lead to 5-3 but Minot’s Micah Holmen added a solo homer to left in the fifth for the game’s final run.
Dickinson had a golden opportunity to make noise with no outs in the sixth inning when Bernston loaded the bases with two hit batters and a walk. But, the pitcher bucked up and struck out the next batter — one of his five in the game — and forced the next two Roughriders into pop outs.
Dickinson (11-18, 6-10 statewide) never threatened in the seventh.
“If another team is hitting, we have to hit,” Emard said. “There were some ABs we got some advantage counts and then we’d swing at pitches up in the zone. You take an advantage count and turn it into a disadvantage count pretty quick.”
Gust opened the second game with a two-run blast to left center and added a sacrifice fly to close out a four-run second inning.
Quist had an RBI single on a hard-hit grounder to second base and Stein added a two-run double down the left-field line to help Minot go ahead 6-1.
After Quist added another run on a fielder’s choice in the fourth, Dickinson began chipping away.
A passed ball on Brett Braunagel’s at bat scored Sean Kelly and Braunagel’s single to short right center scored Taylor Kraenzel, who finished 2-for-3.
Jordan Tescher then belted an RBI double to the left-center field fence to cut Minot’s lead to 7-4. Tescher was 3-for-3 with two doubles.
Gust, however, closed the door on Dickinson in the seventh when he slammed another two-run shot to left off Berg.
“We seem to be hitting the baseball a little better,” Larson said. “Part of that is getting back-to-back games in. That’s been pretty tough with our schedule.”
Minot’s sweep moved them ahead of Dickinson in the statewide standings.
Now the Roughriders must host Williston, arguably the state’s hottest team, in a doubleheader at 5 p.m. today. With four games left in the regular season, the Keybirds sit atop the standings with a 12-2 statewide record. They are 31-7 overall.
It’s the regular-season finale for Dickinson and Emard said he’s not worried about the team’s play as they head into next week’s Class A state tournament.
“We’re still waiting for a complete game to be put together,” Emard said. “I’m still excited about the product we’ll bring to state. We’re just waiting for a complete game and hopefully that is when it happens.”
Minot 6, Dickinson 3
Minot 230 010 0 — 6 11 0
Dickinson 021 000 0 — 3 5 0
Austin Bernston and Trevor Gust. Korey Kallebach and Brady Dutchak. W–Bernston. L–Kallenbach. HR–Minot, Alex Fornshell, Micah Holmen.
Highlights: M, Fornshell 2-for-3, HR, 2 runs; Marcus Quist 2-for-3, RBI, 2 runs; Ethan Stein 2-for-4, 2B, run; Trevor Gust 1-for-4, 2 RBI; Micah Holmen 1-for-3, HR; Alex Schaefer 2-for-4, 2B, RBI; Brock Krueger 1-for-4. D, Sean Kelly 1-for-3; Jordan Tescher 1-for-4, 2B, run; Grant Dvorak 0-for-3, BB, run; Tevin Rettig-Papineau 1-for-3, RBI; Taylor Thiel 1-for-2, run; Aaron Berg 1-for-2, RBI.
Minot 9, Dickinson 5
Minot 240 100 2 — 9 11 2
Dickinson 100 300 1 — 5 9 2
Rob Wagner, Ethan Stein (5) and Trevor Gust. Aaron Berg and Brady Dutchak. W–Wagner. L–Berg. HR–Minot, Gust 2.
Highlights: M, Alex Fornshell 2-for-4, 2 runs; Marcus Quist 1-for-3, 2 RBI, run; Stein 2-for-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI, run; Gust 3-for-3, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Dallas Klassen 1-for-3, Daniel Erickson 1-for-3, run; Sheldon Marmon 1-for-3, 2 runs. D, Brett Braunagel 1-for-3, RBI, 2 BB; Jordan Tescher 3-for-3, 2 2B, RBI, run; Tevin Rettig-Papineau 1-for-3; Taylor Thiel 1-for-4, run; Sean Kelly 1-for-2, run, 2 BB; Taylor Kraenzel 2-for-3, run.
Tags: legion baseball, dickinson roughriders, minot vistas, sports
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