NYM to open state on Saturday against New Prague

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills Millers captured their second region title in three years with a thrilling 6-5 extra innings win over the Perham Pirates on Saturday night. 

The Millers took an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a Logan Small RBI double and a Brandon Kupfer two-run single, before Perham would go on to score five straight runs to take a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning. 

Unable to get much going offensively after their big first inning, the Millers tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by Small and an RBI single by Braxton Ehnert. After the two runs in the seventh, both pitchers took over and kept runners off the base paths for the most part, other than a few tense moments for Millers fans in the top of the 10th inning.

With the score still tied at 5-5, Perham loaded the bases with no outs thanks to a walk and back-to-back singles.
Small buckled down and somehow worked out of the bases loaded jam by forcing a pop out in foul territory and then striking out the next two batters to end Perham’s best scoring chance in the extra frame. 

NY Mills went down in order in the bottom of the 10th inning, as did the Pirates in the top of the 11th inning, before the Millers won the game in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the 11th. 

After Zach Hocking popped out to lead off the bottom of the 11th, Bergen Roder was hit by a pitch. Finn Roder struck out to leave two outs on the board and his brother on first base. On the next batter, Bergen Roder stole second base and advanced to third base on a wild pitch, while Derin Gaudette walked to leave runners on first and third base with two outs. That’s when Small helped his own cause and hit a ground ball back to the pitcher that he beat out at first base and allowed the running run to score from third base to come away with a walk-off 6-5 win to send the Millers back to the state tournament.

In addition to the game winning hit, Small picked up the win on the mound in relief as he went seven innings and gave up five hits, one earned run, three walks and struck out seven batters. Austin Maneval started the game and went four innings and gave up six hit, four earned runs, one walk and struck out four batters. 

Gaudette, Small, Brayden Ehnert and Finn Roder led the way offensively with three hits, while Small led the team with three RBIs. 

The Millers will open the state tournament on Saturday in New Prague against the New Prague Orioles at 11 a.m. The winner of the game will play on Friday, Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in New Prague against the winner of Glencoe and Howard Lake. 

AB R H     BI

Derin Gaudette 5 1 2 0

Logan Small 5 1 2 3

Brayden Ehnert 4 2 2 0

Austin Maneval 3 0 0 0

Braxton Ehnert 2 0 1 0

Brandon Kupfer 4 0 1 2

Conrad Koll 0 0 0 0

Bode Roberts 5 0 0 0

Zach Hocking 4 0 0 0

Collin Teich 0 0 0 0

Bergen Roder 2 1 0 0

Finn Roder 5 1 2 0

HITTING- 2B- Derin Gaudette, Finn Roder, Logan Small

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Austin Maneval 4-6-4-4-1-4, Logan Small 7-5-1-1-3-7