The Mankato Region was the only region in the entire Gopher Classic affected by rain on Friday as only two games were played. Pierre didn’t play its first games until Saturday and finished the tournament at 1-2.
On Saturday, the Eights bats opened up a 9-2 lead after two innings against LaSueur-Henderson with four runs in the first and five in the second on eight hits. Pierre was able to hold on for a 10-5 win behind Bennett Dean on the mound. However, after the eight hits in the first two innings, the bats fell cold the rest of the weekend with only 13 hits in the last two and half games of the weekend along with just four runs.
Pierre had one bad inning in game two against Hopkins as the Flyers scored nine times in the third winning 11-1 in just five innings. University of Minnesota commit, Jake Perry, had two, two run home runs in the same inning as walks led to the nine run inning for Hopkins.
In the final game of the weekend, Mankato American scored five runs in the second inning with all six hits and seven base runners reaching with two outs. Eight of the 13 Mankato hits all came with two outs as they beat Pierre 8-2. A three run home run from Caleb Fogal was the last blow to the Eights in the bottom of the fifth.
Assistant Coach Nathan Naasz says there were some positives to take away from the weekend but there’s plenty to learn from…
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Naasz says the first two innings of the tournament shows this team can be very dangerous offensively…
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And Naasz says heading into Wednesday, it’s playoff time…
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Pierre is now 21-17 on the season and will be on the road to close the season out against Aberdeen with first pitch at 5:00. Pregame coverage will begin at 4:40 on KCCR, kccrradio.com and on YouTube at KCCR Sports.
