In the second round of State Tournament play this past weekend, the Kimball Express were matched up with the Foley Lumberjacks on Saturday, Aug. 24. The Jacks had top-seed in Region 8, and Kimball was #3-seed in Region 11.
The game got off to a late start, just over an hour, and it was a hot day out there. They played in Jordan.
The Express scored 3 runs in the second inning, and they held onto that lead until the ninth inning when the Jacks scored 3, tying the score and triggering overtime. At the top of the tenth, Austin Ruehle reached on an error and later scored on an RBI single by Matt Friesen putting the Express ahead, 4-3. The Jacks were put down in the bottom of the tenth, giving the Express the 4-3 win.
Brooks Marquardt led the Express at bat with a double for 3 RBI. Matt Friesen hit a pair of -singles and had 1 RBI. Tommy Friesen hit a double. Austin Ruehle, Ben Johnson, Adam Beyer, Zach Schmidt, and Ashton Hanan each hit a single on the day.
Brock Woitalla, draftee from the Monticello Polecats, earned the win for the Express. Woitalla struck out 2 during his 2 innings on the mound. Ben Johnson pitched the first 7 innings, striking out 5. Tommy Friesen pitched a scoreless bottom of the 10th inning recording the save.
Ryan Chmielewski is tagged with the loss for the Lumberjacks; he allowed the winning run by the Express, and he struck out 5 and walked 1. Logan Winkelman pitched the first 4 1/3 innings, striking out 4 and walking 1 while allowing 3 runs.
Charles Hackett hit a 3-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning with 2 outs to send the game into extra innings.
The Kimball Express are now among the final 16 teams heading into Labor Day weekend, and are four games away from the Championship.
The Express will take on the Bird Island Bullfrogs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, in Belle Plaine. When they win that game, they play at 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 1, in Green Isle (against either Bemidji or Waconia). If Kimball wins that game, and Watkins win their first two games of the weekend, the two teams will play each other at 4 p.m. Sunday, in Green Isle.
The Championship game is at 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2, at Jordan.
KIMBALL AB R H BI
Austin Ruehle 5 1 1 0
Tommy Friesen 5 0 1 0
Ben Johnson 4 0 1 0
Matt Friesen 5 0 2 1
Adam Beyer 5 0 1 0
Scott Marquardt 4 1 0 0
Zach Schmidt 4 1 1 0
Ashton Hanan 4 1 1 0
Brooks Marquardt 4 0 1 3
TOTALS 40 4 9 4
FOLEY AB R H BI
TOTALS 39 3 8 3
Express 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 9 2
Lumberjacks 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 8 1