Missed Opportunities Plague Pine Island in Tournament Opener

The Pine Island Post 184 American Legion baseball team fell 2-0 to Springfield in the State Division 2 Baseball Tournament on Friday. The game was played in Paynesville under perfect weather conditions.

Brady Braaten certainly gave his team a chance to win, but Pine Island could muster no offense off Springfield ace pitcher Isaac Fink. Braaten threw just 89 pitches and allowed seven hits while going the distance. He struck out three and walked one batter.

Pine Island had the bases loaded with nobody out in the fifth and sixth innings, and that was really the story of the game.

The Post 184 team tallied four hits in the game. Leadoff hitter Joe Bauer had two hits, Braaten and Keegan Majerus had the other hits. All singles.

Bauer started the bottom of the first with a single on an 0-2 count but was thrown out trying to steal second base. Bauer led off the fourth inning with a walk and was tagged out in a rundown.

Fink fanned eight, walked three and hit two batters. He was right up against the pitch limit with 115. The limit is 120 in a game.

Sprinfield later in the day came from behind to score a 5-3 win over BOLD in the pool play format. So they are in the final four.

For Pine Island to advance, they must defeat BOLD this morning on KDHL and hold them to less than thre runs to have a chance of making the final four.

Legendary Pine Island Coach Craig Anderson joins me on the game broadcast today.

Coverage on KDHL 920AM, www.kdhlradio.com and the Radio Pup app starts at 8:45 this morning.