Vikings nip YME with 8-run 7th

Trailing 13-6, Minneota staged a ferocious rally, scoring eight times in the last of the seventh to upend Yellow Medicine East 14-13 last Thursday in Minneota.

"This was a game that tested our character and mental toughness," said Minneota coach Keven Larson. "We had quite a few things go against us; some that YME did and some that we put on ourselves."

YME scored in four of the first five innings to take the commanding lead.

The Vikings whittled away at the deficit in the final inning and collected 14 hits in all. Ben Skorczewski, hitting in the leadoff spot, and Cooper VanOverbeke, hitting ninth, each had three hits. Skorczewski also drove in four runs.

"The boys can surely take away the confidence from coming from behind to win the game," said Vikings coach J.D. Pesch. "But we also want them to take the mental errors they made in the first six innings away from this one, too."

Kaden Culver had two hits, including a solo home runs. Josh Schuelke and Braeden Panka also had two hits each for the Vikings. Jacob Hennen and Carter Schuelke had the other hits.

Josh Schuelke, the fourth Minneota pitcher, threw a scoreless inning of relief for the win.

YME..................134 050 0 - 13 14 6
Minneota..........300 300 8 - 14 14 3

Minneota hitting: Ben Skorczewski 3-for-5, 2b, 2 runs, sb, 4 rbi; Josh Schuelke 2-for-2, 2 runs; Jacob Hennen 1-for-4, run; AJ Myhre 0-for-5, run; Carter Schuelke 1-for-4, 2b, run, 2 rbi; Braeden Panka 2-for-4, 2b, run, rbi; Kaden Culver 2-for-4, 2 runs, solo HR, rbi; Jonah Gruenes 0-for-3, 2 runs; Cooper VanOverbeke 3-for-5, 2b, 2 runs, sb, 2 rbi

Minneota pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Thor Fischer 2 2/3-9-8-4-3-4, Braeden Panka 1 2/3-1-3-3-3-0, Jacob Hennen 1 2/3-4-2-0-1-2, Josh Schuelke (W) 1-0-0-0-1-0.