Small named Region 14C tournament MVP

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills Millers put an exclamation point on the Region 14C tournament on Saturday night when they Millers defeated the Perham Pirates by a score of 9-6. The win was the second time the Millers defeated the Pirates in the Region 14C tournament and secured not only the region title, but a bye in the opening round of the Class C state tournament.

After Perham scored a run in the top of the first inning on an error, the Millers quickly took the lead as Logan Small hit an RBI triple to bring Jacob Guck across the plate. He scored just one batter later when Brandon Kupfer hit a sacrifice fly to left field to give NY Mills a 2-1 lead. 

Perham tied the game at 2-2 on a sacrifice fly in the top of the third inning, but NY Mills took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jonah Johnson hit a home run over the right field fence to bring Adam Patron, who opened the inning with a walk, across the plate to give the Millers a 4-2 lead. 

The Millers essentially put the game out of reach int he bottom of the sixth inning when Johnson walked with one out, before he scored on a Derin Gaudette RBI double. Gaudette didn’t stay on second base for long as Guck connected with an RBI single and he would later score on a sacrifice fly by Brayden Ehnert to right field to make the score 7-2 in favor of NY Mills. 

The Pirates made a game of it in the top of the seventh inning when they hit a three-run home run with two outs and scored on an RBI single in the top of the eighth inning to bring them within one run by a score of 7-6. 

Up by just one run, NY Mills scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on a bases loaded walk by Patron and a fielder’s choice by Collin Teich to give them a 9-6 lead heading into the top of the ninth inning. Small surrendered just a single with one out, but didn’t give up a run to secure a 9-6 win over Perham and the Region 14C title. 

Gaudette and Small led the way offensively with three hits apiece. Both Millers finished with a double, while Small added a triple to go along with one RBI. Kupfer also finished with a multi-hit game as he went 2-2 with a pair of walks. Johnson also had a solid night at the plate as he went 1-4 with a pair of runs scored and a home run. He also had two RBIs. 

Small, who finished as the Region 14C MVP, picked up the complete game win by going all nine innings. He gave up eight hits, five earned runs, while walking five and striking out seven hitters. In the Region 14C tournament, Small went 8-15 at the plate with a pair of triples, grand slam home run, six RBIs, four stolen bases and 2-0 on the mound.

The Millers will now advance to the state baseball tournament and take on either Bemidji or Litchfield on Sunday, Aug. 25. at 1:30 p.m. in Belle Plaine.

NYM vs. Perham

AB R H     BI

Derin Gaudette 5 1 3 1

Jacob Guck 5 2 1 1

Logan Small 5 2 3 1

Brandon Kupfer 2 1 2 1

Brayden Ehnert 2 0 0 1

Zach Hocking 3 0 0 0

Waylon Fudge 0 0 0 0

Adam Patron 2 1 0 1

Carter Teich 4 0 1 1

Jonah Johnson 4 2 1 2

HITTING- 2B- D. Gaudette, L. Small

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- L. Small 9.0-8-6-5-5-7