Dragons top Blackjacks, will play on Thursday for sectional baseball title

Garrett Penning stranded baserunners in each of the first six innings and hit a key two-run single as Adrian-Ellsworth advanced to the Section 3A baseball championship game with a 4-2 Tuesday win over Dawson-Boyd in Milroy.

The Dragons captured the elimination bracket with the victory and will now meet Murray County Central at 5 p.m. Thursday for the section title. A-E will need to defeat MCC twice to win the championship; the Rebels need just one win.

Early on, the Dragons' defense was the biggest story as right fielder Charger Erlandson gunned down a runner at the plate to end the second inning and catcher Keaton Schettler threw out a Blackjacks' runner attempting to steal for the second out of the third.

With the game scoreless. A-E broke through in the fourth without the benefit of a hit. Caleb Wolf reached on a dropped fly ball in right to lead things off. Then, with two out, Jayden Lautt walked and Jackson Jenniges and Matt Geister were hit by consecutive pitches to force in a run.

Dawson-Boyd left a pair of runners in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth, and the Dragons then tacked on two more runs in the fifth when Joe Rahe reached on a throwing error, Wolf singled for the first A-E hit and Penning singled both of them home. 

The Blackjacks once again stranded runners at second and third in the fifth and another runner in scoring position in the sixth. Singles by Travis Weiss, Wolf and Penning loaded the bases in the seventh, and Erlandson executed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt for the fourth run.

Dawson-Boyd got on the board on the bottom of the seventh on a single, two Dragon errors and a two-run double, but Penning got the final out of the game with the tying run at the plate.

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Hadley Walchal tossed a two-hit shutout and struck out 10 hitters Tuesday afternoon as the Jackson County Central Huskies won their opening game at the Minnesota Class AA Softball Tournament, blanking Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 4-0 at North Mankato's Caswell Park.

The Huskies, seeded second in the tourney, will next meet No. 6 seed Visitation at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in a semifinal game at Caswell Park. The championship game is scheduled for Friday at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium in Minneapolis.

JCC, now 26-1 on the season, got two runs in the second inning when Hadley Wachal singled and her courtesy runner, Clara Brinks, scored on a two-out wild pitch. Miley VanDeVere then singled and later scored on a Kinley VanDeVere single.

The Huskies got their third run of the game in the third when Brielle Tufvesson doubled with two away and then crossed home plate on a Mady Wachal single. In the fourth, JCC again scored with two out when Jess Dvorak and Kinley VanDeVere both singled and an error followed to bring Dvorak home.

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The Worthington Cubs will be back in amateur baseball action on Sunday when they play at Fairmont at 2 p.m.

The Cubs lost at Luverne 11-1 Sunday to slip to 2-4 overall. Eli Gaul had two hits for Worthington, and Austin Gruis got a hit in his first amateur at-bat.