By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning North Stars came out on the short end of three games last weekend against a pair of teams that are ranked in the top 10 in both Class B and Class C.

On Friday night the North Stars fell to Class C sixth ranked New York Mills by a score of 9-1, before falling to second ranked in Class B Bluffton in a pair of games on Sunday.

This week the North Stars will travel to Deer Creek on Friday night, before hitting the road to take on Nimrod on Saturday afternoon. 

Friday

The New York Mills Millers improved to 7-0 as they came away with a 9-1 win over the Henning North Stars on Friday night.

The Millers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Brandon Kupfer connected with a two out double to bring Braydon Ehnert and Bode Roberts across the plate. 

The North Stars cut the Millers lead to 2-1 in the top of the second inning when Joey Lindberg hit an RBI single to bring Eric Fick across the plate.

The Millers added one run in both the second and third innings, before breaking the game open in the sixth inning when four runs came across the plate. Austin Maneval led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a walk and courtesy runner Teagan Lausten would later score on an RBI single by Finn Roder. Following a walk, Braxton Ehnert connected with a two-run single to make the score 7-1 in favor of NY Mills. The final run of the inning came on a Jonah Johnson RBI single to make the score 8-1. 

The Millers added one more run in the seventh inning to end the game by a score of 9-1. 

Braxton Ehnert, Johnson, Maneval and Roder all led the way offensively for NY Mills with two hits apiece, while Henning had four players all get one hit in the loss. 

Maneval picked up the win on the mound as he went six innings, giving up four hits, one earned run, while striking out six hitters. Lausten pitched three scoreless innings in relief to secure the win.

Fick took the loss for the North Stars as he went five innings, giving up seven hits and seven runs of which five were earned. Garrett Kuhn-Rice pitched three innings and gave up four hits two earned runs and struck out three hitters for Henning. 

AB R H     BI

Owen Harig 4 0 0 0

Garrett Kuhn-Rice 4 0 0 0

Stephen Lindberg 4 0 1 0

Eric Fick 4 1 1 0

Ayden Olson 1 0 1 0

Rowan Finseth 3 0 0 0

Joey Lindberg 4 0 1 1

Seth Sansness 3 0 0 0

Austin Koep 3 0 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Eric Fick

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Erick Fick 5.0-7-7-5-5-5, Garret Kuhn-Rice 3.0-4-2-2-2-3

Sunday

Isaac Hamann, Connor Davis and Justin Dykhoff each collected two hits as the Bluffton Braves picked up a 7-0 win over Henning in the first of two games between the two teams on Sunday.

Bluffton broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning when Payton Rondestvedt reached on an error and Dykhoff connected with a double. Both batters would eventually cross the plate to make the score 2-0. They added three more runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth inning on an Isaac Hamann RBI single and a Rondestvedt RBI double to end the game by a score of 7-0. 

The best scoring chance for the North Stars came in the top of the sixth inning when Nick Lindberg and Rowan Finseth reached first and second base with two outs. Both runners were stranded on base.

Rondestvedt gave up three hits and struck out nine batters to collect the 7-0 shutout win for Bluffton, while Nick Lindberg took the loss on the mound for the North Stars.

In the second game of the afternoon, Bluffton was able to come away with an 11-1 win over Henning. Rondestvedt and Tyson Barthel each smacked a home run in the win. Barthel hit his home run in the top of the second inning, while Rondestvedt hit his bomb in the top of the third inning.

The Braves wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as Barthel put Bluffton on top 2-0 in the second inning, before they scored two more runs in the third and fourth innings and broke the game open in the top of the sixth inning with five more runs. 

The lone Henning run came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Austin Koep reached on a fielder’s choice. He scored on a Jayden Harig single, but it wasn’t enough as the Braves came away with the win. Henning also had a chance to crack the scoreboard with runners on second and third with two outs in the third inning, but the runners were stranded on base. 

Bluffton was led offensively by Hamann and Cody Geiser who picked up two hits each, but all nine starters collected at least one hit apiece. 

Owen Harig led the way for Henning as he collected a pair of singles in the loss. Seth Sansness took the loss on the mound for Henning. 

Bartel picked up the win on the mound as he went five innings and struck out three hitters. He gave up just one run, before Dustin Geiser pitched a scoreless sixth inning in relief.