Owatonna Baseball Walks Off with Win, Advances to Final Four

A long, hot weekend ended with a come-from-behind victory in walk-off fashion for the Owatonna VFW Post 3723 baseball squad. Their 8-7 win Sunday over Waseca advances them to the final four of the District Tournament in Winona this coming weekend. A trip to the state tournament in Austin is on the line.

Owatonna trailed 6-1 against Waseca. Post 3723 rallied to tie the game at 6-6 on back-to-back doubles by Mitch Seykora and Tayte Berg in the sixth inning. Owatonna followed that with a go-ahead knock by Nathan Theis for a 7-6 advantage. Waseca tied it in the seventh.

In the eighth inning, Tanner Smith led off with a hit. Theis had the walk-off hit to set off the celebration [Watch it below.] and clinch a berth in the next round. Seykora got the pitching victory.

Owatonna, the three seed, opened the tourney with a 10-2 victory over Byron, the 14th seed. Michael Reinardy had two hits and two RBIs. He reached base four times and scored three runs. He also got the win on the mound. Noah Truelson executed a suicide squeeze as Owatonna took the lead for good with a three-run second inning. Outfielder Caleb Dibble caught five fly balls hit his way and threw out two runners at first base from right field.

Waseca, the sixth seed, upset Austin, the sixth seed, 8-7. Waseca  VFW Post 1642 jumped out to a 5-0 lead and held on for the win.

Byron Post 9647 upset Austin Post 1216 in an elimination game 6-5. Austin grabbed a quick 3-0 lead  Byron rallied to the lead with a four-run fourth inning.

Owatonna closed out Saturday's schedule with a 12-6 victory over Waseca. Post 3723 started scoring early with five in the first. They stretched the lead out to 9-3 after three innings. Berg had a double and a triple. Carson Krenke also tripled. Owatonna had more than a dozen stolen bases for the day.

On Sunday, Waseca knocked out Byron to create the rematch with Owatonna.

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL

The Sub-State District 1 quarterfinals are Monday, July 18 at the high seed. All subsequent games are at Winona State University from Wednesday, July 20 through Saturday, July 23.

Quarterfinals on Monday, July 18
Byron (8th seed) at Rochester A's (top seed)
Rochester Red Hawks (5th) at Stewartville (4th)
Owatonna (6th) at Austin (3rd)
Rochester Patriots (10th) at Winona (2nd)