Luverne rallies to win amateur baseball series over Jackson

The Luverne Redbirds, after losing game one in their Region 10C best-of-three amateur baseball playoff series with the Jackson Bulls on Wednesday, rallied to win the series by earning victories on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

The Redbirds, who entered the postseason as the region's No. 4 seed, advanced to the state tournament thanks to their triumphs in Jackson on Friday and back at home Sunday. Luverne joins Windom and Fairmont as regional qualifiers at state.

Friday's Redbirds-Bulls matchup began with a wild opening inning, as Luverne tallied three runs in the top of the first only to see Jackson knot the score in the bottom of the first. The game remained even at 3-3 until the Bulls inched ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth, but Luverne got two in the seventh to move in front and then held on from there.

The first inning Sunday was similar to Friday's first, as both teams scored twice. The Redbirds, however, made it 5-2 with a three-run third, and Luverne tacked on two in the fourth and three more in the fifth en route to a 12-2, eight-inning win over the Bulls, who were the No. 6-seeded team in Region 10C.

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Drew Rothenberger shut down the Fairmont Martins on the mound and the Windom Pirates scored four runs in the fourth inning Friday night as they went on to top the Martins 7-3 in Fairmont.

The victory gave top-seeded Windom the Region 10C title for the second year in a row. The Pirates will have the region's top seed at the upcoming Minnesota State Class C Amateur Baseball Tournament. Fairmont is the region's No. 2 seed.

Windom collected 13 hits in the game as Alex Fink, Hayden Tietz, Rothenberger, Chase McDaniel and Kobe Lovell all had run-scoring hits. Rothenberger tossed the first five innings for the Pirates, surrendering no runs while striking out seven Fairmont hitters.