The Becker Bandits and Clearwater River Cats amateur baseball teams both advanced to the Region 11C Tournament after completing the Sauk Valley League playoffs last weekend.

Becker defeated the Sartell Stone Poneys 3-1 to pick up the fifth seed heading into regions, while the River Cats fell 13-6 to St. Joe and earned the fourth seed.

In the Bandits’ win over the Poneys, Kellan Graning was a one man wrecking crew on the mound, going all nine innings and giving up just three hits.

Will Thorn led the offensive attack, drilling a solo home run and finishing the day two-for-five.  Nolan Reiter and Dalton Fouquette each had a pair of hits for Becker as well.

Becker will now face the Kimball Express in the Region 11C quarterfinals on Saturday (today) at 1:30 p.m. in Sartell at the St. Cloud Orthopedic Field.

The Express are a perennial power from the Central Valley League, and have qualified regularly for the state tournament in recent years.

In the River Cats’ loss to the Joes, Jake Carper started on the mound and went 3.1 innings, yielding five runs, while Andy Nefs finished up the game and worked 4.2 innings.

Tyler Carper led the offensive attack with a three-for-five performance.

The Cats will take on the Sartell Muskies in the Region 11C quarterfinals at 4 p.m. in the game immediately following the Bandits versus Express contest.

The Muskies finished the regular season 9-3 in the West Division of the Sauk Valley League, tying for the lead with St. Joe.

Win or lose, both Becker and Clearwater will play on Sunday at the same location.  The teams are both on the bottom side of the nine-team bracket, meaning they could potentially meet in the semifinals or in the loser’s bracket.  The top three teams from the Region tournament will qualify for the MBA State Tournament.  The Region tournament wraps up Aug. 10.