NYM to face Perham on Saturday

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Austin Maneval and Skylar Mursu combined to throw a four hit shut out as the top seeded New York Mills Millers advanced to the Region 14C semi-finals on Saturday with a 7-0 win over Henning. The score was just 1-0, until the Millers broke the game open with a big four-run bottom of the seventh inning. 

The Millers struck first in the bottom of the third inning when Logan Small led off the inning with a double. He wasn’t on second base for very long before Brandon Kupfer hit an RBI single to make the score 1-0 in favor of the Millers. 

The game remained at 1-0 until the Millers struck for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning when seven of the opening eight hitters of the inning reached base safely. 

Jonah Johnson and Derin Gaudette opened the inning with back-to-back singles, before Brayden Ehnert hit an RBI single to make the score 2-0. Logan Small followed with a sacrifice fly to center field, which actually brought two runs across the plate due to an error by the third baseman. 

The final run of the inning came on another error by the Henning third baseman to make the score 5-0 in favor of the Millers. 

The Millers added a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to Gaudette, who led off the inning with a solo home run, and an RBI single by Kupfer to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Millers. 

Kupfer led the team offensively with three hits and a pair of RBIs, while Gaudette went 2-5 with a solo home run. 

Maneval was tremendous on the mound for the Millers as he retired the opening eight hitters of the game in order and didn’t give up a hit until there were two outs in the top of the fourth inning. He gave up just three hits in the game, while striking out five hitters and not walking a batter. Mursu pitched two scoreless innings and struck out three batters, while giving up just one hit. 

With the win the top seeded Millers advance to the Region 14C semi-finals where they will take their 15-4 record against fourth seeded Perham on Saturday night at 5 p.m. in Perham. The Millers lost a pair of games to the Pirates earlier this season by scores of 13-4 and 7-6. The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to Sunday’s Region 14C winner’s bracket championship game against either second seeded Midway or third seeded Deer Creek. The winner of Sunday’s game, which is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., will advance to state. 

The loser of Saturday’s game against the Millers and Pirates will fall to the elimination bracket and will take on either Sebeka or Clarissa on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the elimination bracket. The Region 14C tournament continues next weekend in Perham. 

AB R H     BI

Derin Gaudette 5 2 2 1

B. Ehnert 4 1 1 1

Logan Small 3 2 1 1

Brandon Kupfer 4 0 3 2

Teagan Lausten 0 1 0 0

Zach Hocking 5 0 0 1

Hunter Holtti 0 0 0 0

C. Teich 4 0 1 0

Waylon Fudge 1 0 0 0

Adam Patron 2 0 0 0

B. Ehnert 0 0 0 0

J. Guck 2 0 1 0

Jonah Johnson 3 1 1 0

HITTING- 2B- J. Guck, L. Small; HR- Gaudette

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Austin Maneval 7.0-3-0-0-0-5, Skylar Mursu 2.0-1-0-0-1-3