By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills baseball team has kept fans on the edge of their seats so far this season. In what promises to be a highly competitive Park Region Conference, NY Mills has opened the season with a record of 2-4, but just one of those games has been by a margin wider than four runs.

After defeating Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale by a score of 16-5 to open the season, NY Mills dropped a pair of games to Otter Tail Central by scores of 3-1 and 3-0, while also falling to Parkers Prairie by a score of 4-3 and Menahga by a score of 12-8. The other Eagle win came by a 5-4 score against the Braves.

April 4

NY Mills pounded 14 hits and took advantage of three Raider errors on their way to a 16-5 win over Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale on April 4. 

The Eagles wasted little time in crossing the plate as Finn Roder led off the game with a single. He scored just one batter later when Blake Unger hit an RBI single. Following a Braxton Ehnert walk, Grady Roberts hit a two-run double to make the score 3-0. Roberts would also cross the plate later in the inning to make the score 4-0. 

The Eagles tacked on three more runs in the second, one run in the fourth and seven runs in the top of the sixth inning to come away with a 16-5 win.

Roder and Unger led the way offensively with three hits apiece, while Roberts finished with a pair of doubles and four RBI’s. 

Isaac Kawlewski picked up the win on the mound as he needed just 26 pitches to get through three innings of work. He gave up just one hit and struck out a pair of batters, before giving way to Roberts and Jeremy Kopveiler on the mound. 

              AB R H     BI

Finn Roder 5 3 3 1

Blake Unger 4 3 3 3

Braxton Ehnert 1 2 0 1

Aiden Muscha 1 0 0 0

Grady Roberts 3 1 2 4

Joe Mann 1 0 1 0

Eli Vaughan 5 1 1 2

Isaac Kawlewski 3 1 1 0

Kolston Lofgren 3 1 2 0

Slade Doll 3 0 0 0

Everett Ruther 1 1 0 0

Hunter Bosman 2 2 1 1

HITTING- 2B- Eli Vaughan, Grady Roberts 2

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Isaac Kawlewski 3.0-1-0-0-1-2, Grady Roberts 2.0-4-5-2-3-1, Jeremy Kopveiler 1.0-0-0-0-1-0

April 10

An error in the top of the first inning led to a pair of Otter Tail Central unearned runs to cross the plate and turned out to be the difference in a 3-1 loss to the Bulldogs on April 10. 

After falling behind by a score of 2-1 in the top of the first inning, NY Mills fought back to get the game within one run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Grady Roberts scored on a passed ball. 

Unfortunately, OTC answered the run just one inning later when they scored on a fielder’s choice to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Bulldogs. 

Blake Unger led the way offensively for NY Mills as he picked up a pair of hits, while Finn Roder took the loss on the mound after going four innings and giving up just two hits and one earned run. He also struck out six hitters.

AB R H     BI

Finn Roder 4 0 0 0

Blake Unger 3 0 2 0

Braxton Ehnert 3 0 0 0

Grady Roberts 1 1 0 0

Eli Vaughan 2 0 0 0

Isaac Kawlewski 3 0 0 0

Kolston Lofgren 2 0 1 0

Everett Ruther 2 0 0 0

Evan Doll 1 0 0 0

Hunter Bosman 2 0 0 0

HITTING- 2B- 

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Finn Roder 4.0-2-3-1-1-6, 3.0-0-0-0-1-3

April 11

Blake Unger broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the third inning when he scored on a wild pitch, but Parkers Prairie scored a pair of runs on two separate errors in the top of the fourth inning to defeat NY Mills by a score of 4-3 on April 11. As a team the Eagles finished with six errors which led to three unearned runs. 

On a positive side the Eagles offense once again had a solid night as the collected 10 hits, including three off the bat of Kolston Lofgren and two from Unger.

Isaac Kawlewski took the loss on the mound as he went four innings and gave up eight hits and one earned run, while striking out three hitters.

AB R H     BI

Finn Roder 4 1 1 0

Blake Unger 3 1 2 0

Braxton Ehnert 4 0 1 0

Grady Roberts 3 0 1 0

Eli Vaughan 3 0 0 0

Kolston Lofgren 4 0 3 0

Joe Mann 2 1 1 0

Isaac Kawlewski 2 0 0 0

Everett Ruther 3 0 0 0

Slade Doll 1 0 0 0

Hunter Bosman 3 0 1 0

HITTING- 2B- Blake Unger

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Isaac Kawlewski 4.0-8-4-1-2-3, Kolston Lofgren 3.0-1-0-0-1-0

April 15

In what turned out to be a pitcher’s duel, Isaac Kawlewski and OTC pitchers Kale Misegades and Eric Fick combined to strike out 20 hitters and gave up just one earned run on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, NY Mills dropped their second close game to the Bulldogs of the season, this time by a score of 3-0. 

OTC scored single runs in the first, third and fifth innings that were aided, in part, by a pair of Eagle errors that led to a pair of unearned runs.

NY Mills secured just a pair of hits in the loss off the bat of Finn Roder and Blake Unger. 

New York Mills vs. OTC

AB R H     BI

Finn Roder 3 0 1 0

Blake Unger 3 0 1 0

Braxton Ehnert 3 0 0 0

Grady Roberts 2 0 0 0

Eli Vaughan 3 0 0 0

Kolston Lofgren 3 0 0 0

Evan Doll 2 0 0 0

Aiden Muscha 2 0 0 0

Hunter Bosman 2 0 0 0

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Isaac Kawlewski 6.0-5-3-1-1-6

April 17

A Grady Roberts two-run double with two outs in the top of the seventh inning gave NY Mills a 5-3 lead and its second win of the season on Thursday afternoon. With two outs in the top of the inning, Braxton Ehnert was intentionally walked to put runners on the corners when Roberts laced a hard ground ball down the left field line to give the Eagles the lead. 

Menahga made a game of it late as they picked up back-to-back doubles with one out to make the score 5-4, but Kolston Lofgren shut the door on the Braves by striking out the next hitter and forcing a pop out to end the game 5-4. 

The Eagles were led offensively by Braxton Ehnert who went 1-2 with three RBI’s, while Roberts connected with a two-run double in the win. 

Ehnert started the game on the mound and gave up just one earned run and four hits, while surrendering seven walks and eight strike outs. Lofgren picked up the win on the mound as he went 2 2/3 innings and gave up just one earned run and struck out three hitters.

In the second game of the day, a pair of big Menahga innings proved to be too much for NY Mills to overcome as the Eagles fell by a score of 12-8.

Menahga scored seven runs in the fifth inning and five runs in the seventh in a game that featured a combined 20 runs and 29 hits.

NY Mills tried to make a game of it later with a five run inning of their own in the bottom of the seventh inning, but ultimately came up just short in the loss. 

Roberts led the way in the second game with four hits, including a pair of doubles, and five RBI’s.

AB R H     BI

Kolston Lofgren 2 1 0 0

Blake Unger 4 1 1 0

Braxton Ehnert 2 1 1 3

Grady Roberts 3 0 1 2

Eli Vaughan 4 0 0 0

Evan Doll 2 0 0 0

Isaac Kawlewski 3 0 0 0

Joe Mann 2 0 0 0

Everett Ruther 1 0 0 0

Hunter Bosman 2 2 1 0

HITTING- 2B- Grady Roberts

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Braxton Ehnert 4.1-4-3-1-7-8, Kolston Lofgren 2.2-3-1-1-0-3

AB R H     BI

Kolston Lofgren 3 1 1 0

Eli Vaughan 1 1 1 0

Blake Unger 3 3 2 1

Braxton Ehnert 4 1 2 1

Grady Roberts 4 0 4 5

Carlyle Tumberg 0 0 0 0

Everett Ruther 4 0 0 0

Evan Doll 3 0 0 0

Aiden Muscha 1 0 1 0

Slade Doll 2 1 2 1

Isaac Kawlewski 4 0 1 0

Hunter Bosman 3 1 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Blake Unger, Kolston Lofgren, Grady Roberts 2, Braxton Ehnert

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Kolston Lofgren 4.1-8-5-5-1-0, Grady Roberts 0.2-3-2-2-2-0, Slade Doll 1.0-3-5-5-4-1, Blake Unger 1.0-1-0-0-0-1