Pioneers 9... Williston State 12
The MCC Pioneer hitters could not come up with the timely hits and MCC pitchers had control issues and couldn't get the big outs as the Williston State Tetons advanced to the championship game of the MonDak Conference baseball tournament with a 12-9 win over MCC.
Pioneer batters struck out 14 times in the game and collected only 7 hits in the loss. Pioneer pitchers hit 9 Teton batters and walked 7 others and those statistics turned out to be the downfall of the Pioneers chances of advancing to the title game.
Williston State took a 3-0 lead after 2 innings of play getting 2 runs in the 1st and another in the 2nd. The Pioneers then tied the score at 3-3 and looked to have the momentum until the Tetons picked up 4 runs in the 4th inning for a 7-3 lead. In the 3rd inning for MCC, RF Ian Krump (Rapid City, SD) drew a walk, 2B Ryota Kusumoto (Qairns, Australia) reached on an error, and 3B Lane Neill (Belgrade, MT) walked to load the bases. DH Tommy O'Connell (Kalispell, MT) hit a deep fly ball to right field that fell just in fair territory to drive in Krump and Kusumoto and cut the lead to 3-2.
C Takumi Kimoto (Brisbane, Australia) hit a solo home run in the 4th to tie things up at 3-3. After the Tetons took a 7-3 lead the Pioneers chipped away again. MCC scored when Lane Neill walked and reached 2nd on a wild pitch. He eventually scored when Kimoto hit a ground ball to 1st base that was misplayed by the Tetons and making the score 7-4. The Pioneers cut the lead to one run again in the 7th inning after Kusumoto reached 2nd on a deep fly ball that was misplayed by the Teton centerfielder. Kusumoto then scored when Lane Neill singled to center. Kimoto singled and LF Grant Gabbert (Thorton, CO) walked to load the bases. Neill scored on a sacrifice fly RBI scoring Neill and making it a 7-6 Teton lead.
Williston State the got those 2 runs back in the bottom of the 7th to make it 9-6. The Pioneers cut the lead to 9-8 in the 8th inning after a Krump single and Kusumoto reaching base after being hit by a pitch. Krump and Kusumoto executed a double steal and O'Connell drove them in with a single to leftfield.
Just like the last time the Pioneers cut the lead to one, they couldn't hold off Williston State as the Pioneers got 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th for a commanding 12-8 lead. The Pioneer added a run in the 9th on a sacrifice fly RBI by 1B Tim Holyk (Nanaimo, BC) but that is all the Pioneers could score.
Takumi was the only Pioneer with mulitple hits going 2-5 (HR, RBI, R).
Bo Hays (Bozeman, MT) got the start and pitched 3.1 innings (7 R, 7 H, 4 BB, 4 SO). Patrick Dietz (Manhattan, MT) came in for 0.1 innings (H, BB) before Noah Aliff (Centralia, WA) came in for 2.1 innings (2 R, BB, 3 SO). Cameron Murphy (Torrington, WY) pitched the final 2 innings (3 R, 5 H, BB, 4 SO). Pioneer pitchers also had 4 wild pitches in the game.
MCC will face Bismarck State again at 12:00 PM on Sunday. The winner will face Williston State at 3:30 PM and would have to beat the Tetons twice to win the tournament. Those 3 teams have already qualified for the Region XIII Championships that will take place at the MonDak Tournament champion.