CLASS C MINNESOTA STATE AMATEUR BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: FARMING 7, IRISH 0
Milroy limited to 4 hits in 7-0 loss to Farming
As it turns out, Plan B worked out just fine for the Farming Flames in the opening round of the Class C State Amateur Baseball Tournament on Saturday.
Facing the Milroy Irish without their ace, the Flames turned to New Munich draftee Ty Reller, and the lanky lefty delivered with a dominant four-hit, complete game shutout to knock the green-and-black out of the playoffs.
“He had a funky delivery, he kind of hid the ball,” Milroy player/manager Anthony Dolan said. “He wasn’t gassing us by any means, but it got on you quick and you had to load up early. He kept us off balance.”
It was not the ending the Irish were hoping for. Their usually potent offense had no answer for Reller, who retired Milroy in order to open the game. Meanwhile, Milroy starter and Jackson draftee Brian Rasche matched Reller early on.
Rasche set the Flames down in order in the first two innings and was the beneficiary of a nifty double play started by second baseman Moses Dolan in the third. Rasche left two men stranded in the fourth, but the Flames got to him in the fifth when Will Mergen scored on a suicide squeeze by Adam Winkler for a 1-0 lead. Later, Tylor Schroeder tripled to put Farming up 3-0.
MILROY’S NOAH KNAKMUHS reaches out to slap a single to right field in the top of the seventh inning of Saturday’s 7-0 loss to Farming in the first round of the Class C Minnesota State Amateur Bseaball Tournament.
“A couple bounces here and there and we get out of that inning with only one run given up,” Anthony Dolan said.
In the sixth, Milroy’s Derek Smith singled with two outs and stole second, but Reller got Tyler Peterson to pop out to end the threat.
Rasche went out for the bottom of the sixth and set the Flames down in order to keep the Irish within striking distance, and the Irish appeared to be on the brink of breaking through in the seventh when Dolan drew a two-out walk and Noah Knakmuhs sprayed a single to right to move Dolan to third. Moses Dolan then walked, but Dominic Dolan was thrown out at first on a close play to close the inning.
Trevor Smith relieved Rasche to start the seventh and gave up a run to make it 4-0.
Reller, meanwhile never seemed to tire and retired the Irish 1-2-3 in the eighth.
“He had a good curve ball … there’s something about those lefties — we see one or two a year, and we didn’t hit the ball today,” Anthony Dolan said.
The Flames all but put the game away with another three-run inning in the top of the eighth off relievers Craig Lasley and Jackson draftee Will Larson.
“That’s a good hitting team, they really are,” Anthony Dolan said. “They get those three runs (in the fifth inning), now they’re loose, the pressure’s off. Our pitchers had to really grind and work after that to keep them off the bases, and we didn’t do a great job of that, and they put up another three-spot.”
Anthony Dolan said the decision to start Rasche came down to not having an injured Tyler Maeyaert available to take the hill, and Rasche being a lefty against a predominantly left-handed Farming lineup.
“That kind of deflates you a little bit right there, when your number one can’t go,” he said. “Tyler’s been great all season long, and for us not being able to throw him out there hurts. My decision to go with Rasche — they have a lot of lefthanded bats in the lineup and he’s a lefty. It’s not that I didn’t have confidence in the other guys, but he was our guy. He threw great for us.”
Despite the loss, the Irish leader said 2025 was a fun year with a number of young faces joining the team who will be integral parts of the team moving forward.
“The young guys that we signed — you look at Trevor Smith, Noah Knakmuhs — day in and day out, we leaned on them all year, especially Trevor on the mound, he was a dog all year,” he said. “I look forward to seeing them grow next year. I’m really excited for next year.”
Getting hits for Milroy against Farming were Andrew Wallen, Moses Dolan, Derek Smith and Knakmuhs.
• In other Class C games featuring local teams over the weekend, Lamberton lost to Paynesville 6-5, with the winning run scoring on a wild pitch; Windom beat Elrosa 6-2; Leavenworth beat Randall 11-0 in eight innings; and Courtland beat Pine Island 6-3. In Class B, Raymond toppled Webster 3-0 and Bird Island blanked Prior Lake by the same score.
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Rasche (L), Smith (7), Lasley (8), Larson (8) and D. Smith.
IRISH RIGHTFIELDER TYLER PATTERSON quickly gets the ball back to the infield after a Farming hit during Saturday’s state tournament game. Photo / Per Peterson
