Kenyon-Wanamingo Baseball Season Ends Against Goodhue

One of the reasons we enjoy watching sports is for the unpredictability. No. 1 seed Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights saw their season abruptly end in a 7-6 defeat by No. 8 seed Goodhue.

The Knights won their first Blue Division Hiawatha Valley League title while not losing a single game in the division this spring. They swept a doubleheader from Goodhue by scores of 10-0 and 6-0 along the way. Knights head coach Randy Hockinson told KDHL after the game his team picked a bad time to have a poor game, but made it perfectly clear the Wildcats were the aggressors and earned the victory.

Junior right-handed pitcher Sam Kyllo held off a K-W team that tallied a number of hits off state-ranked Rochester Lourdes on Monday in a 7-3 loss in the overall HVL championship game, to two hits through the first five innings. He wasn't overpowering, with just five strikeouts in his 4-2/3 innings of work, but was very efficient. Kyllo threw just 53 pitches in those five innings. He was pulled in the sixth inning after Kenyon-Wanamingo collected three runs in successive singles with two outs. The big blow was a 2RBI single by senior Connor Sviggum.

The Wildcats scored in the first inning when lead-off hitter Logan Breuer crunched a double off the left centerfield fence on a 2-2 count and scored on the Riley Augustine RBI single with two outs and two strikes. They added three runs in the second off Knights starter Drew Sathrum. After the first out was recorded, Nate Altendorf had a double on a 0-1 count and Sathrum then collected the second of his 10 strikeouts. With two outs, No. 9 hitter Nick Thomforde smacked a single, then there was an error followed by a Taylor Buck 0-1 count 2RBI single and Goodhue was up 4-0.

In the bottom of the third, the Knights' No. 9 hitter, Ted Androli, coaxed a one-out four-pitch walk and junior Jake Whipple took an outside corner pitch to right field to plate Androli and the score was 4-1.

Goodhue added two runs in the fifth after Buck led off the inning with a double. The Wildcats' recipe for success was a familiar one. They got the first batter on base in four of the first five innings.

Kenyon-Wanamingo got to within 6-4 after plating three runs in the sixth inning. After a hit batsman was sandwiched between two outs, K-W got three consecutive hits by junior Luke Rechtzigel, junior Ethan Benda and senior Connor Sviggum. Riley Augustine came in relief of Kyllo and got the last batter on a comebacker while throwing just one pitch. Augustine lasted just four batters into the seventh inning before senior Logan Breuer was brought in to slam the door on the Knights' comeback.

Senior Tyler Schumacher led off Goodhue's seventh with a double and scored on an error, and it proved to be the difference in the game.

K-W's seventh started with a hit batter, then junior Ted Androli smacked a ball over the center fielder's head for a triple to make it 7-5. Androli scored on a balk. That was followed by a single and walk and Breuer was brought in with runners at second and third and nobody out with the score 7-6. After issuing a four-pitch walk to senior Drew Sathrum, the Knights had bases loaded and nobody out and saw the next three hitters all pop out to end the game.

Kenyon-Wanamingo ended their season 15-7 and Goodhue is now 5-16 and will play either Randolph or Lyle/Pacelli at 10AM Saturday at the Riverland Community College baseball complex in Austin. The Randolph game is Friday at 1PM.

In other West Subsection games of Section 1, Class A No. 2 seed Hayfield defeated Blooming Prairie 6-4 and No. 3 seed Medford eked by Southland 7-6. Hayfield and Medford also play at 10AM Saturday in Austin.

In Section 1 Class AA West Subsection action, top seed Rochester Lourdes dispatched Zumbrota-Mazeppa 15-2 in five innings and Byron beat Pine Island 5-0, No. 2 seed Cannon Falls defeated Triton 11-1 in five innings and Kasson-Mantorville rolled to a 12-5 win over Stewartville.

That means Lourdes will play Byron at 10AM Saturday in Stewartville and Cannon Falls will face Kasson-Mantorville in the 12:30PM game. The winners and losers play at 3PM Saturday.

In Section 1 Class AAA first-round play, Rochester Century rolled over Faribault 15-2 in five innings in Rochester and will play No. 4 seed Farmington at 1PM Saturday. Austin downed defending section champion Lakeville South 2-1 and will play at No. 1 seed Northfield at 1PM Saturday. On the other side of the bracket, No 2 seed Rochester John Marshall will play Owatonna at 1PM Saturday because the Huskies cruised by Winona 11-1 in five innings.