VFW BASEBALL: Worthington VFW knocks off Luverne 9-4

WORTHINGTON — Worthington VFW Post 3958 started their league play on Monday night against Luverne with a 9-4 win.

Pitcher Ryan Lee headed Worthington, as he went 2-for-3 with a walk, and pitched all seven innings with six strikeouts and two walks.

“I had great defense behind me all night,” Lee said. “I just threw strikes and let them hit it.”

Worthington was the first on the board in the bottom of the second inning.

Carson Hagen came up to the plate and smashed a single and Trevor Wietzema got hit by a pitch in the next at bat.

With runners on the corners, Blake Fauske had a base hit to drive in Hagen.

Worthington ended up getting hot in the bottom of the third inning, when Post 3958 put three runs on the board.

Tristan Sorenson and Logan Thuringer headed off the inning with back-to-back singles bunt singles. Lee then moved the runners up on a sacrifice fly.

Back-to-back singles from Roque Soto and Hagen plated both Sorenson and Thuringer.

Wietzema drove in Hagen with a double to cap the scoring for Worthington in the inning and make it 4-0.

“We did play really good defense,” Worthington coach T.D. Hostikka said. “Our pitcher pitched pretty well.”

The biggest inning of the game for Worthington came in the bottom of the fourth.

Oliver Wolyniec led off the inning with a walk and Sorenson doubled. Three of the next four batters walked to score two runs and two more runs came in on wild pitches to make it 8-0 Worthington.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Wolyniec hit a shallow sacrifice fly to center field, which made it 9-0 Worthington.

In the top of the seventh inning, Luverne made one last attempt at making a comeback.

Tommy Vajgrt hit a double to right to get the inning going. Then Zane Hiller came to the batter’s box and ripped another double to left, which drove in Vajgrt.

Gonzalez ended up hitting a sacrifice fly to center field, which brought in Hiller to bring the game to 9-2 in favor of Post 3958.

Andrew Verhey hit two-run single to score Logan Norman and Tanner Rowden to make it 9-4.

Luverne would get no closer, as Lee finished the game with a strikeout.

“In the last inning, their pitcher started to walk a few and we could get picky, and we hit the ball when we could,” Luverne coach Mike Wenninger said. “And that is the story of high school baseball. If you can throw strikes, you can win, and if you walk you usually don’t win.”

Worthington, now 5-2 and 1-0 in league play, will be in action again this Thursday at home against Adrian.

R H E

Luverne 000 000 4 — 4 7 2

WGTN 013 401 X — 9 12 0

Tags: sports, prep, baseball, luverne, worthington