The Becker Bulldog boys baseball team split two games this week including an epic, come-from-behind win over the Hornets of Big Lake Thursday afternoon.
Becker 8, Big Lake 7
Down by one run going into the bottom of the seventh inning, host Becker scored two runs to come back and take down Big Lake, 8-7, in a nonconference game Thursday night.
Clayton Gallus scored from third base on a wild pitch to bring in the game's winning run.
Becker’s John Mann started the game on the mound and gave up three runs in the first before settling down in the next few innings.
The Bulldogs cut into the lead in the second inning when Gallus led off with a single and moved to third on a hit by Casey Vesledahl. He then scored on a sacrifice fly by Eric Blomgren.
The Bulldogs scored another lone run in the third inning when Austin Rasmussen got on by getting hit with a pitch. Andrew Stanger put down a superb sacrifice bunt, moving Rasmussen to second where he eventually scored on a hit by Cody Gruenhagen.
Big Lake responded by scoring two runs in the fourth inning on a walk to Sam Jochum, a hit batter to Jake Moorhead and they scored on a hit by Tanner Tiege, making the score 5-2 in favor of Big Lake.
Becker mounted another comeback in the fourth when Blomgren smashed a two-run home run in the third to bring the game to 5-4. The homer came on the next pitch Blomgren saw after he appeared to foul out to first base. Hornet first baseman Cameron Peterson failed to squeeze the pop-up in his glove and Blomgren made him pay with a long blast to center field.
The Bulldogs finally pulled ahead in the bottom of the sixth when Thorson led off with a single, Vesledahl singled and Blomgren reached on a fielders choice. Matt Yoerg laid down a bunt to score Vesledahl and Rasmussen hit a single to score Blomgren to put Becker up 6-5.
The Hornets come back to take the lead 7-6 in the top of the seventh with Sam Jochum reaching base on an error and scoring on hit by Jake Moorhead. Moorhead scored on a couple of throwing errors by the Bulldogs.
In the bottom of the seventh, Gruenhagen led off with a hit, followed by a Gallus single. Thorson laid down a perfect bunt and the Hornets tried for a play at third but Gruenhagen was called safe and the Bulldogs had the bases loaded with nobody out.
Vesledahl tied the game with a hit to score Gruenhagen and Gallus scored on the wild pitch to give the win to the home team.
“ As a coach, I m so proud of the way these players never quit and that each player contributes to the success of this team,” said Stanger.
Tanner Teige went 2-for-4 to lead Big Lake.
Little Falls 2, Becker 1
Benjamin Witt and Tom Bell each had two hits to lead the Flyers past the Bulldogs in Becker Tuesday night.
Casey Vesledahl was 2-for-3 with one RBI to lead Becker. Cody Gruenhagen took the loss in a pitching duel with the Flyers’ Thomas Miller.
Becker 5, Rogers 4
The Bulldogs fell behind by one in the first inning only to tie it up in the second when Blomgren scored on a hit by Gallus.
Rogers went ahead in the fourth inning, scoring three runs. Becker came back with a run in the bottom half of the inning making the score 4-2. Showing no signs of quitting, the Bulldogs came up with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to steal the win when Jake Fobbe walked, Gruenhagen got hit with a pitch and Tyler Thorson walked to load the bases. With two outs, Gallus delivered a base hit scoring Fobbe and Gruenhagen and moving Thorson to third. Vesledahl got an infield hit with great hustle, scoring the winning run.
Andrew Stanger went the first five innings, allowing no earned runs while throwing a one hitter. Fobbe came on in the sixth, allowing only one hit and no runs.
Leading hitters for Becker were Gallus, who was 2-for-4 and Vesledahl, who was 2-for-4.
The Bulldogs finished the regular season 10-9 which is the first winning season they’ve had in quite a while.
The Section 8AAA tournament starts with a Monday noon game against Monticello in St. Michael with the winner playing STMA at 3 p.m.
