By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning North Stars have advanced to the second weekend of the Region 11C baseball tournament after splitting a pair of games in Perham last weekend. On Saturday morning the North Stars defeated Dent by a score of 12-6, before falling to top seeded from the Resorters League, Urbank, by a score of 2-0. 

The North Stars will take on a familiar foe in the elimination bracket on Saturday afternoon as they face Deer Creek at 2 p.m. in Perham. The winner of the game will take on the winner of Long Prairie and Clarissa on Sunday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m. in New York Mills. 

The Region 11C tournament will wrap up on Saturday, Aug. 15 in Perham with the state tournament kicking off Aug. 21-23 in Chaska, Jordan, New Prague and Shakopee. 

Saturday

Nick Lindberg hit three doubles and drove in four runs on four hits, while Eric Fick was just a double away from hitting for the cycle as the Henning North Stars defeated the Dent Diamondhawks by a score of 12-6 on Saturday morning in their Region 11C opener. 

The North Stars took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Stephen Lindberg hit into a bases loaded fielder’s choice to give Henning the lead. 

Dent answered with four runs in the top of the second inning, including three runs on a single error to take a brief 4-1 lead, before Henning answered back in a big way with four runs of their own, including a bases loaded double by Nick Lindberg to tie the game at 4-4 and a Noah Link RBI double to give Henning a 5-4 lead. Lindberg also connected on an RBI double in the fourth inning and Fick led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a solo home run to give Henning an 11-6 lead.

Link and Lindberg each finished with three doubles and four hits, while Fick went 3-5 with a single, triple and home run in the win. 

Garrett Kuhn-Rice picked up the win on the mound as he went seven innings and gave up seven hits, six runs of which just one was earned, walked one batter and struck out six. Owen Harig pitched the final two innings and didn’t surrender a hit, while striking out five batters in the process. 

AB R H     BI

Eric Fick 5 3 3 1

Owen Harig 6 2 2 1

Nick Lindberg 5 3 4 4

Noah Link 5 0 4 3

Stephen Lindberg 5 0 1 1

Garrett Kuhn-Rice 4 1 0 0

Joey Lindberg 3 1 0 0

Colin Koep 1 0 0 0

Jayden Harris 4 1 1 1

Oscar Lindberg 0 0 0 0

Carlyle Tumberg 4 1 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Nick Lindberg (3), Noah Link (3), Owen Harig; 3B- Eric Fick; HR- Eric Fick

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Garrett Kuhn-Rice 7-7-6-1-1-6; Owen Harig 2-0-0-0-0-5

Sunday

Henning and Urbank found themselves in a midst of a classic pitchers’ duel on Sunday in Perham with Nick Lindberg, Carter Simonson and Alex Koep combining for 26 strikeouts, nine hits and just two earned runs as the Bombers were able to get the best of the North Stars by a score of 2-0. 

The lone runs in the game came in the bottom of the first inning on a two out single by Urbank and a two out double in the bottom of the seventh inning to make the score 2-0. 

Henning didn’t get a run across the plate, but they had chances throughout the game as they as had a pair runners on base in the first inning, as well as bases loaded in the third and seventh innings. However, Simonson and Koep were able to strike out 18 Henning batters and gave up just three hits to pick up the win for Urbank.

Nick Lindberg gave up just six hits and two earned runs, while walking one and striking out eight batters to keep the North Stars in the game. 

Henning picked up just three hits in the game, which included singles by Owen Harig, Nick Lindberg and Joey Lindberg. 

AB R H     BI

Eric Fick 4 0 0 0

Owen Harig 3 0 1 0

Nick Lindberg 3 0 1 0

Noah Link 4 0 0 0

Stephen Lindberg 4 0 0 0

Garrett Kuhn-Rice 4 0 0 0

Jayden Harig 4 0 0 0

Joey Lindberg 2 0 1 0

Colin Koep 1 0 0 0

Carlyle Tumberg 2 0 0 0

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Nick Lindberg 8-6-2-2-1-8