LOCAL SPORTS 7-13-26

Sunday Amateur Baseball:

Red Wing Aces 7 Northfield Knights 3-The Aces picked up another key win against the Knights, sweeping the regular season series and grabbing the #1 seed for the upcoming District 2 playoffs in August.

Jake Geiger tripled and scored on an RBI single by Blake Mellgren in the top of the first inning for the Knights against Aces starter Aaron Johnson. Red Wing bounced back in the bottom of the first inning. Brodie Gibart singled and scored on an RBI double by Reid Hartmann. Hartmann advanced to third base on a wild pitcvh and scored on an RBI groundout by Dixon Irwin. Marcus Walm followed with a booming home run to left field to put the Aces up 3-1 on Knights starting pitcher Eli Patrikus.

The Knights scored a run in the second inning off Johnson when Sam Maus doubled and later scored on an RBI groundout by Nico Van DeWalker. Northfield added another run against Johnson in the third inning when Jake Geiger singled and scored later on an RBI single by Al Severson. The Knights loaded the bases with one against "The Big Unit" but Johnson got Sam Maus to groundout into a force play at the plate for the second out. Johnson then struck out Troy Deden to end the threat. Red Wing went back on top 4-3 in the bottom of the third inning when Reid Hartmann doubled, stole third base and scored on a sac fly by Adam Thygesen.

The Aces went up 5-3 in the fifth inning when Brodie Gibart led off with a double, moved to third on a fly ball to deep left by Reid Hartmann and then scored on Dixon Irwin's RBI single. Red Wing's final two runs came off Tyler Hughes, the Knights second pitcher, in the seventh inning. Hartmann led off the seventh with his third double of the day. Marcus Walm reached on an error. Hartmann scored on and RBI single from Adam Thygesen and Walm scored on an RBI single by Nick Azar.

Aaron Johnson pitched seven gritty inning in the heat to pick up the win. Johnson scattered nine hits while walking two and striking out nine. Brody Gibart pitched the final to innings to close out the win. Eli Patrikus took the loss the Knights (6-7).

The Aces are 15-7 overall and play at Hastings Tuesday with the pre-game show at 7:15pm and the first pitch at 7:30pm on Bluff Country 1250 KCUE/KCUE 99FM and on-line at www.kcueradio.com with Jack Colwell calling the action.