Hinckley-Finlayson hosted Mille Lacs last night in a Section 5A East playoff matchup.
The Raiders got out the gates quickly scoring on a sacrifice fly from TJ Remer to bring Daniel Miller across the plate for a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza. Eric Pederson started on the mound for the Raiders and threw 2.3 scoreless innings. But it was in the bottom of the 3rd inning when the Jags started to shift momentum their way. With two outs the Jaguars got a runner on. The next at bat saw an error help Griffin Stiel reach first and send Trey Visser all the way across the plate tying the game. Stiel would reach 2nd safely on a steal and he would then score the next run on an RBI from Mac Storlie. Jacob Grice would sit patiently in the batters box and walk to 1st. Randy Skaff made his way to the plate. He would crush a base hit for a two run single to give his team a 4-1 lead. The 3rd inning saw the Raiders make 2 errors that wound up costing them runs.
After that we saw nearly 3 more scoreless innings. But in the bottom of the 6th Hinckley-Finlayson would once again take advantage of 3 Mille Lacs errors and send 5 runs across the plate. Now with a 9-1 lead the Jaguars needed just 3 outs to host another playoff game. Lane Von Rueden who started the game would come back and finish it. With 2 outs the Raiders found a way on base and looked prime for a two out rally. But Von Rueden would quickly put an end to any idea of a comeback as he struck out the next batter and sealing the win. Von Rueden threw a complete game with 5 strikeouts and only allowed 5 hits.
With the win the Jaguars will host Ogilvie today in the Section 5A quarterfinals and the winner will play in the semifinals on Monday in Pierz.
Mille Lacs season is not over with the loss. They will travel to Braham for an opportunity to keep their season alive. If they win they would play another elimination game on Monday as well.
