WILMONT -- It took a while, but the Wilmont amateur baseball team's offense finally arrived -- and in a big way.
Wilmont scored a combined nine runs in the seventh and eighth innings Monday night en route to an 11-5 victory over Hadley in a Gopher League playoff game.
Wilmont will host Luverne in an elimination game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"It took us a while to get going," Wilmont coach Sam Baumgartener said. "Their pitcher, Max Zwart, was shutting us down for the majority of the game, but he threw a lot of pitches and kind of ran out of gas. That's when our offense came alive."
The Cardinals, who were shut out by Adrian on Sunday, broke a long scoreless drought with a run in the third. They added another in the fifth but trailed 5-2 going into the bottom of the seventh.
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In the seventh, Josh Noble drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Then, with two outs and runners on second and third, Aaron Johnson delivered a two-run single, which plated the eventual winning run.
Johnson added another two-run single in Wilmont's four-run eighth inning and finished the game 2-for-4 with four RBIs.
Cole Johnson, who had an RBI single in both the seventh and eighth innings, went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Wilmont.
Nick Ahrens started and struck out five over 5 and one-third innings before being relieved by Ryan Swanson, who struck out four and held Hadley scoreless the rest of the way to earn the victory.
R H E
Hadley 100 004 000 -- 5 8 0
Wil. 001 010 54x -- 11 10 0
Luverne 9, Tracy 4
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LUVERNE -- Luverne's Zach Olson had four hits, including a pair of triples, drove in three runs and scored four times to lead the Redbirds past the Express Monday night in an amateur baseball tilt.
Andrew DeBoer earned the victory on the hill, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out five and walking three.
Caleb Bruynes earned the save, allowing one hit and one run while striking out six in three innings of work.
James Fisher had a pair of hits and drove in two runs while Mark Boelman had two hits and had an RBI.
Tanner Skattum had two RBIs while Jared Pick scored twice for the Luverne team that had all nine runs come from the top four hitters in the order.
Andrew Suby had a two-run home run to lead Tracy.
R H E
Tracy 000 102 001 -- 4 7 0
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Luv. 201 010 13X -- 9 11 1
