WILLISTON - Parker Borg finished a double shy of the cycle and gave West Fargo the lift it needed to fend off a pesky Williston squad on Wednesday.
Borg homered to give the Patriots a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third inning, and the top-seeded Patriots built from there on their way to a 7-4 victory in the first round of the North Dakota Class AA American Legion State Baseball Tournament at Ardean Aafedt Stadium.
Borg added a single in the fifth and an RBI triple in the seventh to cap his night at the plate.
"We have a pretty big, strong lineup, and he's one of those guys that have hit in the middle of our order all season long," Patriots head coach Chris Coste said. "As a coach, I'm blessed to have seven or eight guys who could all bat 3-4-5, and he's one of those guys. When he gets hot, he's a game-changer. Without him, we probably don't win this game."
Borg grounded out to shortstop in his final at-bat in the ninth, but it was a day to remember nonetheless.He finished 3 for 5 with two RBI.
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"I wanted it, but I didn't want to go up there just to hit a double," he said. "I wanted to see the ball, put a good swing on it and bring in a few. It didn't work out this time, but maybe next time. ... Most times I go up there, I try to not think about anything and just be aggressive."
The Patriots advance to face Grand Forks at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Keybirds, the No. 7 seed in the field, proved feisty at the beginning.
Williston's Tate Ferrell supplied an RBI single in the top of the first inning for an early lead. After the Patriots tallied two runs in the bottom half thanks to an RBI single from Hunter Ulmer and a double from Hayden Reynolds, Williston's Ty Gerrard scored on an error to tie it 2-2.
With two outs gone in the bottom of the third, Borg broke that tie with a towering shot to left field. An error at shortstop in the bottom of the fifth allowed West Fargo's Drake Flesche to score with two outs for a 4-2 lead.
Flesche kept the scoring going with a two-out single in the fifth that scored Reynolds, making it 5-2. After the Keybirds got a run back in the seventh on a double from Chance Johnson, Borg answered with his triple that scored Flesche.
Williston's Zach Carson singled home Gerrard, who had doubled, to cut the lead to 6-4 in the eighth, but that's all the Keybirds would get.
West Fargo's Denver Blinn singled to bring home West Fargo's final run in the eighth inning. Blinn, Jake Faircloth, Ulmer, Flesche and Andrew Enno all tallied two hits.
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Ryan Bourassa picked up the win for the Patriots. He struck out six over his 6 2/3 innings.
"At this point in the season, higher seed and lower seed is irrelevant," Coste said. "They still had some good pitching. We split with them a week ago maybe, so we knew they were capable if they played the right game. We just happened to do a few more things better. We got some timely hits and played just-good-enough defense."
West Fargo 7, Williston 4
W 110 000 110 - 4 10 3
WF 201 011 11X - 7 14 2
W: Zach Carson (4.2), Brady Aberle (2.1), Koby Klassen (1.0) and Tate Ferrell. WF: Ryan Bourassa (6.2), Tristen Roerich (1.1), Drake Flesche (1.0) and Parker Borg.
W-Bourassa. L-Carson. HR-WF, Borg.
Highlights: W, Chance Johnson 2-5, 2B, 1 RBI; Ty Gerrard 2-2, 2B, 2 R; Tate Ferrell 1-5, 1 RBI; Zach Carson 1-2, 1 RBI; Braedon Zaste 1-4, 1 R. WF, Parker Borg 3-5, HR, 3B, 1 R, 2 RBI; Drake Flesche 2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI; Andrew Enno 2-4; Hunter Ulmer 2-5, 1 R, 1 RBI; Denver Blinn 2-5, 1 R, 1 RBI; Jake Faircloth 2-5, 1 R; Hayden Reynolds 1-4, 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI; Ryan Bourassa 6 2/3 IP, 8 H, 3 R (2 ER), 6 K, 2 BB.
