The Otter Tail Central Bulldogs were victorious against Braves 4-0 on Tuesday at Tony Kawlewski.

A solo home run to center field by Eric Fick put OTC on the board in the bottom of the third inning.

Lane Dilly earned the win for OTC as he allowed zero hits and zero runs over four innings, striking out five and walking none. 

“Dilly had yet another great start for us.  Not only did he earn the win, theres more to it.  Dilly was able to eat up five full innings under 50 pitches so he gets to recover tomorrow and is still eligible to pitch again on Thursday,” said head coach Ryan Hendrickson. “Fick too! Eric came in on the final two innings of play with a three run advantage and closed (it) down to earn the save, again in under 50 pitches. All in all we are going into the bracket play with all of our pitching available. I would like our bats to come alive more than they have lately, but we are blessed with a great defense and all of our pitching available.” 

Fick seized on their opportunities, leading the Bulldogs with two runs batted in from the number eight spot in the lineup. The outfielder went 2-for-3 on the day. Owen Harig and Gavin Pausch each stole multiple bases for OTC.

Thursday

OTC took down Hawley 4-2 on Thursday at Prairie Wind Middle School, Matt’s Field, in round 2 of the Section 8AA Tournament in Perham. The Bulldogs are now 2-0 in the tournament and advanced to Friday’s sub section championship game against Perham. 

Hawley opened the scoring in the first after a couple of unlikly Bulldog erros and after Lane Dilly induced Cael Kosmatka to hit into a fielder’s choice, but two runs scored. 

“We opened the game off with a couple of errors, but did not fold under that pressure.  Playoffs are a different animal and puts a different type of pressure on a team. We shook off the nerves there after the first inning and pulled it together well,” said head coach Ryan Hendrickson. “Having a Bulldog Leader like Lane on the mound helped us keep focus and not get our confidence down at all, we were able to move on still feeling fine about ourselves.” 

The Bulldogs took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning after Noah Link singled, Ayden Olson doubled, and Link scored after tagging up, each scoring one run. 

“We have worked really hard in practice to get our bats to liven up, it was great to see the bottom half of our order square up some balls and come up clutch. Olson’s double was a dagger to Hawley,” said assistant coach Dakota Aeling.

Dilly earned the win for OTC as he allowed five hits and two runs (zero earned) over seven innings, striking out seven and walking two. Jayden Ambuehl took the loss for Hawley. The starting pitcher went five innings, giving up four runs on six hits, striking out four and walking one.

Link, Olson, Dilly and Eric Fick each drove in one run for OTC. Dilly led the Bulldogs with two hits in three at bats. 

Friday

The Perham Yellowjackets defeated OTC 11-0 on Friday, thanks in part, to six runs in the fourth inning.

Perham opened the scoring in the first after Gavin Griffin hit a sacrifice fly, scoring one run.

The Yellowjackets added to their early lead in the bottom of the third inning when Gage Aanenson singled, scoring one run, an error scored two runs, and an error scored one run.

Perham scored six runs on four hits in the bottom of the fourth inning. Blaiz Schmidt doubled, scoring one run, Aanenson doubled, scoring one run, Ashton Detloff singled, scoring one run, Brock Melgard was struck by a pitch, driving in a run, and Seth Urbach grounded out, scoring two runs.

Detloff earned the win for Perham as he surrendered three hits and zero runs over five innings, striking out five and walking none. Eric Fick took the loss for OTC as he went three innings, surrendering five runs (one earned) on two hits, striking out three and walking four.

Kale Misegades, Ryan Despard, and Fick each collected one hit for the Bulldogs.

“We just gave a good team too many free bases, we will regroup and play our best baseball yet on Monday and through the rest of the tourney.  Perham is a good team, they put a lot of pressure on defenses with their solid offense. I hope we get to a point that we get to play them again come tourney championship,” said head coach Ryan Hendrickson.

The Bulldogs will now play on Monday in a win or done situation. On Monday the Bulldogs will play at 2 and 430 p.m. in Perham and fight their way through the losers side of the bracket. The Bulldogs will lean on their vetran pitching staff to lead the way.

Results from Monday’s games were not available at the time of press.