Having taken the Victoria Vics in the first two games of their best-of-five series, the Chaska Cubs were looking to not only take the series but also earn a week to prepare for the state tournament.
Chaska is rated anywhere from second to fifth in the Aug. 1 polling of Minnesota Baseball Association “experts.”
The Cubs won the first game 9-1. Sam Tyrpa was on the mound for the Cubs, going seven innings, giving up zero runs on four hits, and striking out five.
Four Cubs batters — Griff Wurtz, Hayden Anthony, Wyatt Rogers, and Mac Born — had two hits each in that game.
For the second game in Victoria, the Cubs won 3-1. Patrick Fontaine led the Cubs with three hits. Nolan Kemp went five innings on the mound for the Cubs, giving up one run on three hits and striking out nine. Drake Kilber went four innings and got the save — striking out two, giving up no runs and allowing one hit.
Matthew Totten (4-1 in 12 games this year, 1.77 ERA) took the mound for the Cubs in game three. Both teams sent batters to the plate in the first and second innings, with neither team getting a runner beyond first. This back-and-forth play would end in the Cubs’ half of the third.
Anthony drew a walk to lead things off. He moved to second on Drew Carney’s sacrifice. Fontaine singled. With Anthony on third, Fontaine stole second, leaving first base open for Maddox Foss to reach first on a walk. Fontaine leads the Cubs for the season with 15 stolen bases.
Walker Rogers singled to drive in Anthony, leaving the bases loaded with one out. Born sent the ball deep over the left-field fence for a grand slam, giving the Cubs a 5-0 lead.
The action in the third was not over. Alex Twenge reached first after being hit by a pitch. Wyatt Rogers singled to right field, moving Twenge to second. Michael Gabbard drew a walk to load the bases for the second time in the inning. Anthony, up for the second time in the third, singled and drove in Twenge before Victoria finally got the third out.
Chaska would add another run in the fifth inning. Twenge led off with a double. He stole third and scored on a Gabbard hit. Gabbard was out on a fielder’s choice but received the RBI.
Victoria would score runs in the sixth and seventh innings, making the score 7-2. Anthony Steinhoff came in to pitch for Totten, who had gone seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out five. The Vics would get to Steinhoff in the eighth and make the score 7-3.
In the bottom of the eighth, Anthony singled and then stole second. He has 13 stolen bases for the Cubs on the year. Tyler Polster pinch-hit and reached first on a bobbled ball by the Victoria first baseman. Anthony, using his afterburners, scored from second for another Cubs run.
Fontaine drew a walk. Foss doubled, allowing Polster and Fontaine to score. Walker Rogers followed with a hit, scoring Foss and adding four more Chaska runs to the inning.
Mason Windschitl came on in relief for the Cubs in the top of the ninth. Unfortunately, he had a lower-arm strain and was replaced by Drake Kilber after only six pitches. Kilber kept Victoria off the scoreboard and secured the 11-3 win and the series sweep for the Cubs.
“Play every inning, get hits at the right time, that’s always the key,” said Cubs Manager Bob Poppitz after the game.
Cubs Coach Ben Hendrickson added, “Great pitching from Matthew, and all our batters got on base when we needed them. We’re looking good at the right time.”
In recalling his game-winning grand slam, Mac Born said, “I knew I got it. I thought I had gotten under it, but once I saw it about halfway out there, I knew I had homered.”
Born could not recall if he had ever hit a grand slam before in his Cubs or collegiate (UW-La Crosse) career. Born leads the Cubs in home runs on the season with six. He is tied with Walker Rogers, who also has six. As a team, the Cubs have 25 home runs from eight batters on the season to date.
As they head into the state tournament, Walker Rogers leads the team in hits with 39, followed by Fontaine and Born with 32. Walker also leads in at-bats and has played in 34 games. He leads the team in doubles with 12.
Walker also has the highest batting average at this point in the season at .337, closely followed by Born at over .333 and Foss at .328. Anthony leads the Cubs in singles with 26, and Fontaine leads in triples with three.
Kilber leads the Cubs pitchers in a number of categories: innings pitched (56 2/3), batters faced (245), and pitches (860). Kemp leads the pitching staff in strikeouts with 70. He also has the team-leading ERA at 0.45.
Four pitchers with more than 25 innings pitched have ERAs under 2.0: Kemp (0.45), Tyrpa (1.48), Totten (1.77), and Pete Ohnsorg (1.81).
State tournament seedings will take place on Aug. 16, once all sectional tournament series have been completed. The tournament starts the weekend of Aug. 21. Once the seeding brackets are set, higher-seeded teams get a bye for the first weekend.
Visit the Minnesota Baseball Association website after Sunday to find out how Chaska is slotted. The tournament continues the weekend of Aug. 28-30 and wraps up Sept. 4-7. Chaska will be one of the host sites this year along with New Prague, Shakopee and Jordan
