Vultures 'small-ball' pecks away at Wells
"We do a lot of bunting," said first baseman Austin Sorensen.
All that practice bunting paid off Monday when the Minneota Vultures used bunts to keep rallies going and took advantage of Wells' inability to play and field bunts.
Sorensen was part of that effort in a 15-6 win over Wells in the Sub-State opener at St. James.
"We always bunt in practice," added second baseman Brant Buysse, who didn't need the bunt as he ripped off a pair of hits and scored two runs in the one-sided opener.
"We've been practicing (bunting) since the sections in high school when we got burned (not being able to bunt)," said Assistant Coach J.D. Pesch.
"We've focused on it and it's paying off now," Pesch added.
"We take what they give us and put the ball in play when we need too. And we got key hits in very good situations," said Coach Keven Larson.
The Vultures, now 10-5, take on Luverne at 5 p.m. Tuesday at St. James. Luverne was a winner over Wabasso in the first game of the day.
Minneota struck first when Brant Buysse singled and scored on a single by Alex Pohlen in the first.
They fell behind 2-1 after a throwing error at second by starter Sam Buysse, but bounced back with three runs in the second for a 4-2 lead.
Bunts by Josh Laleman and Jaymes Moon, meant as sacrifices, both went for hits during the rally.
But Wells got to Sam Buysse in the fourth for four runs and a 6-5 advantage. Buysse walked in two runs and Teddy Pesch came in to relieve the starter.
He and Preston Nuy in the seventh shut the door on Wells the rest of the way.
In the fifth, Wells didn't seem to respond to Minneota's "small ball" efforts and the Vikings used both the bunt and a string of seven hits, four Wells errors and a hitter batter.
"We take advantage of what they're going to give us," said Coach Larson.
"We did the little things that turned into big things," Coach Larson added.
The Vultures slapped out 15 hits with Sam Buysse getting three and Brant Buysse, Landon Abraham, Moon and Josh Laleman two each.
Teddy Pesch picked up the win in relief.
MINNEOTA (AB-R-H-RBI) Brant Buysse, 2b 5-2-2-2; Preston Nuy, rf-ss 4-1-1-0; Landon Rolbiecki, ph 1-0-0-0; Teddy Pesch, ss-p 5-0-1-0; Ben Skorczewski, cr 0-3-0-0; Alex Pohlen, c 3-1-1-2; Grady Moorse, cr 0-0-0-0; Landon Abraham, cf-lf 2-2-2-0; Sam Buysse, p-cf 3-1-3-1; Jaymes Moon, lf-rf 4-2-2-2; Austin Sorensen, 1b 4-1-0-0; Josh Laleman, 3b 3-0-2-2; Braeden Panka, cr 0-1-0-0.Totals 33-15-15-9.
WELLS (AB-R-H-RBI) Isaac Meyer, cf 3-0-1-2; Zach Niebuhr, c 4-0-0-0; Levi Thisius, 1b 4-0-0-0; Sam Zebro, p 3-1-1-0; Sean Doyle, 3b 2-1-0-0; Jacob Stevermer, rf 4-2-3-0; AJ Kloos, ss 3-1-2-0; Joe Buslack, lf 3-0-0-0; Colby Kocek, 2b 2-0-1-0.Totals 29-6-9-2.
Score by Innings:
Wells 020 4 0 0 0 — 6 8 7
Minneota 131 0 10 0 x — 15 15 3
E-Minneota: S. Buysse, Laleman, Nuy; Wells: Kloos 2, Kocek, Niebuhr, Doyle 2. LOB-Minneota: 10; Wells: 5. SB-Minneota: Pesch, Abraham, Moon, Sorenson; Wells: Stevemer. SAC-Minneota: Nuy, Pohlen.
Pitching IP R ER H BB K
Minneota
S. Buysse 3.1 6 2 5 3 3
Pesch (W) 2.2 0 0 2 0 1
Nuy 1 0 0 1 1 0
Wells
Zebro (L) 6 15 9 15 1 0
HP-Meyer (by S. Buysse); S. Buysse (by Zebro). PB-Pohlen