Tigers stay alive in Section 2-AA tournament

Minnesota Lake – After being dealt a 10-0 thumping by Kenyon-Wanamingo on Tuesday, the Medford High School baseball team was on the verge of elimination after falling into an early 3-0 deficit to Maple River on Thursday.
Then Willie VonRuden started to find his rhythm and seemed to jolt some life into the Tigers.
After his brother Javis registered a leadoff double, the younger VonRuden’s RBI single gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead to help complete the rally as Medford (7-14) knocked off the Eagles to stay alive in the Section 2-AA tournament. The win marks the Tigers’ second-straight win over a Gopher Conference opponent in the tournament after knocking the conference’s top team in WEM out in the opening round.
“At the conference meeting, those two coaches came up to me and said see you in the playoffs,” commented skipper Jon Chappius. “I didn’t take it as a disrespect thing, but I used it to fire up our boys and they took it to heart.”
VonRuden had another magical start from the mound, retiring five batters in 5 2/3 innings of work while allowing just five hits. However, the freshman seemed to not be in touch with his command from the mound in the early goings of the contest.
In the bottom of the first inning -which just happened to be the longest for him on the mound – VonRuden fired 36 pitches to six batters while giving up a run after an RBI triple from Jeff Lewis. Chappuis noted that it’s sort of his calling card.
“Willie tends to start out slow,” commented Chappuis. “His first inning is always kind of slow, but he usually battles out of it. When he came out in the second and put two runs up, I started getting nervous, but Willie gets up for these games.”
He would, however, managed to record two of his five strikeouts in the inning. Lewis would collect two RBIs on a double in the second to extend the Eagles’ lead to 3-0.
While the Eagles managed to collect five hits through three innings, the Tigers were struggling as they recorded just one hit – a single by Cole Volkmann in the third – through three innings. In fact, thanks to a throwing error on a Javis VonRuden ground ball, Medford was able to cut the lead to 3-1.
After collecting their first run, the youthful Tigers’ squad appeared to have a boost in confidence and it injected life into VonRuden’s arm from the mound. After a tiresome first inning, the freshman settled in to fire four strong innings. In fact, after facing six batters in the first inning alone, VonRuden faced a total of 15 batters the remainder of his time on the mound. Even more impressive is that he allowed just two hits in his final 1 2/3 innings and had the Eagles leave a total of five runners in scoring position.
“It’s easy to go out there and compete when you have teammates show up and ready to compete in the big situations,” added the freshman hurler.
The play in the field carried over the bats in the fourth and fifth innings for the Tigers. After Ben Borash managed to cross home, cutting the lead to 3-2, Ben Sutcliffe tied the game after scoring on a throwing error in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth, the VonRuden brothers started the inning with back-to-back hits. Just two batters later, Volkmann managed to hit the younger VonRuden home with an RBI single to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead with just two innings left.
The Eagles managed to cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth after a fielder’s choice, but Alex Gengler, who came on in relief for VonRuden with two outs in the fifth, managed to have Lewis fly out to centerfield to end the inning.
Volkmann came in to close the game in the seventh and did just that, facing just three batters.
Medford will play the winner of Belle Plaine (16-2) and Lesuer-Henderson (12-9) on Saturday at 4 p.m. in St. Peter. 

Box Score
MHS  0 0 1 2 2 2 2  5 10 1 
MRH  1 2 0 0 0 1 0  4  7 4
WP: VonRuden - 5 2/3 IP, 3R, 5H, 5K, 2BB
Medford batters: Gillis 1-4, J. VonRuden 2-4 (RBI), W.VonRuden 2-4 (RBI), Borash 1-4, Sutcliffe 1-4, Volkmann 3-4 (RBI), Kavitz 0-4, Edel 0-3, Meixner 1-1 (2BB)