Eagles receive second seed in sub section tournament

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills won it‘s ninth straight Park Region Conference championship last week, and in the process, ended their regular season with a record of 16-4.

The Eagles won three of their four games last week, including a pair of games against Parkers Prairie to wrap up their conference season with a record of 13-1. NY Mills is currently ranked eighth in Class A according to the QRF and received the second seed in the sub section tournament. 

The Eagles will open the sub section tournament on Tuesday night when they host seventh seeded Swanville. 

The winner of the game will take on the winner of sixth seeded Long Prairie-Grey Eagle and second seeded Browerville on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Browerville. The sub section finals will be held immediately following that game in Browerville.

On the other side of the sub section, top seeded Upsala will take on eighth seeded Parkers Prairie, while fourth seeded Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale will take on fifth seeded Brandon-Evansville. 

The section tournament will continue next Tuesday and Thursday at Minnewaska Area High School. The section finals will be held on Thursday, June 2 at Minnewaska Area High School at 3 p.m. 

Tuesday

In a potential matchup in the sub section tournament later this week, Browerville edged NY Mills by a score of 15-6. The Tigers were able to get 20 hits in the win, which was highlighted by a 4 run fourth inning, 7 run fifth inning and 3 run sixth inning.

NY Mills got the scoring underway in the bottom of the first inning when Aliya Gerber crossed the plate. They added another run in the third inning when Ayla Olson hit a solo home run and scored 4 more runs in the fifth inning on RBI singles by Olson, Hayley Korkowski and Mackenzie Gilster. 

The team was led offensively by Aliya Gerber, Olson, Korkowski and Gilster who all had 2 hits. The Eagles came away with 11 hits as a team. 

AB R H     BI

Aliya Gerber 4 2 2 0

Moriah Geiser 4 0 0 0

Ayla Olson 4 2 2 2

Megan Riedel 3 1 1 1

Haley Korkowski 3 1 2 1

Mackenzie Gilster 3 0 2 1

Ariel Arno 3 0 1 0

Grace Brasel 1 0 0 0

Bella Huwe 1 0 0 0

Annika Dunrud 1 0 1 0

Kailey Keskitalo 2 0 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Aliya Gerber

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Kailey Keskitalo 4 2/3-14-10-4-3-2, Aliya Gerber 2 1/3-6-5-3-2-1

Thursday

Ayla Olson ended Thursday’s game against Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal in dramatic fashion as she hit a walk-off solo home run with two outs in the top of the eighth inning. The walk-off home run gave the Eagles a 7-6 win and followed a 3-run home run she hit in the sixth inning, also with two outs, to put the Eagles in front by a score of 5-4 at that time. 

After the Titans scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning to retake the lead by a score of 6-5, the Eagles tied in the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Ariel Arno hit an RBI single to bring Hayley Korkowski across the plate. 

That RBI sent the game into extra innings and set up Olson’s dramatic ending.

Kailey Keskitalo picked up the win on the mound as she went all 8 innings and gave up 11 hits and just 2 earned runs.

Korkowski led the way offensively with 4 hits, while Olson finished with 3 hits and a pair of home runs. Aliya Gerber finished the game with 3 hits as well. 

AB R H     BI

Aliya Gerber 5 1 3 0

Moriah Geiser 4 1 0 0

Ayla Olson 4 4 3 4

Megan Riedel 3 0 1 0

Haley Korkowski 4 1 4 0

Mackenzie Gilster 3 0 1 0

Ariel Arno 4 0 1 1

Annika Dunrud 3 0 1 0

Kailey Keskitalo 3 0 0 0

HITTING- HR- Ayla Olson (2)

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Kailey Keskitalo 8-11-6-2-2-5

Friday

For the second straight game, NY Mills had a flare for the dramatic as the Eagles defeated Parkers Prairie by a score of 9-8 in the opening game of a doubleheader on Friday afternoon.

After Parkers Prairie took an 8-7 lead in the top of the eighth inning, NY Mills answered the score when Ayla Olson opened the inning by reaching on a single. She would later score to send the game into the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Kailey Keskitalo opened the inning with a double. She didn’t wait long as Aliya Gerber followed with an RBI single to give the Eagles a 9-8 win.

Eight NY Mills batters got a hit in the game with Gerber leading the way with 3 hits, while Olson, Mackenzie Gilster, Ariel Arno and Keskitalo each got 2 hits.

Keskitalo picked up the win on the mound after giving up just 7 earned runs and striking out 12 Panther hitters.

In the second game of the night, the Eagles wasted little time in jumping on the Panthers as NY Mills scored 6 runs in the first inning, 3 runs in the second inning and 6 runs in the fourth inning to end the game by the 10-run rule. 

The Eagles needed just 5 hits to score 15 runs as they took advantage of 10 walks and 2 hit batters in the win. 

Aliya Gerber picked up the win on the mound as she gave up no hits and walked just 1 batter in the 15-1 win. Gerber struck out 4 hitters in the win. 

Game one AB R H     BI

Aliya Gerber 6 0 3 3

Moriah Geiser 4 0 1 0

Ayla Olson 5 2 2 0

Megan Riedel 3 2 0 0

Haley Korkowski 5 2 1 0

Mackenzie Gilster 3 0 2 2

Ariel Arno 4 1 2 1

Chloe Koljonen 4 1 1 1

Kailey Keskitalo 5 1 2 0

HITTING- 2B- Chloe Koljonen, Kailey Keskitalo

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Kailey Keskitalo 9-11-8-7-4-11

Game two AB R H     BI

Aliya Gerber 3 1 1 1

Moriah Geiser 1 2 0 0

Ayla Olson 0 3 0 0

Megan Riedel 3 3 1 1

Haley Korkowski 3 2 2 2

Mackenzie Gilster 2 2 1 2

Ariel Arno 3 0 0 0

Annika Dunrud 2 1 0 0

Kailey Keskitalo 2 1 0 0

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Aliya Gerber 4-0-1-0-1-4