Four games in five days made for a busy week for Manager Cole Hanson and the Becker Bandits amateur baseball team, as they picked up a pair of back-to-back wins before falling in the final two contests.

Rogers

Last Wednesday, the team picked up an important league win over the Rogers Red Devils, 9-1.

The bats were on fire as Becker pounded out 15 hits en route to the lopsided win.

Nolan Murphy led the offensive onslaught with a 4-for-4 performance that also included three RBIs and a run scored.

Luke Schumacher, Dalton Fouquette, Weston Schug and Matthew Moe each had a pair of hits for the Bandits.

Moe was a workhorse on the mound, picking up the win with seven strong innings that included 11 strikeouts and just one earned run given up.  Cam Fischer went the final two innings to seal the win.

FBI

Last Saturday, the team traveled to Stearns County for the Farming Baseball Invitational (FBI) and came away with a fourth place finish by going 2-1.

They opened tournament play with a 4-3 win over Heron Lake, collecting 10 hits but committing four errors.

“We have to clean up those mistakes and avoid the big inning if we want to go far this season,” Hanson said.

Mitch Louden led the offense with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate, but the big story of the game was Schug and his dominant pitching performance.  He went all seven innings and struck out 15 batters, while scattering seven hits and giving up just two earned runs.

The win advanced Becker into the winner’s bracket where they faced St. Joe and came out on the short end of 9-1 score.

Schug was the offensive leader with a 2-for-2 game at the plate, as he also picked up a stolen base, a walk and a run scored.

On the mound, Fischer took the start and lasted 2.2 innings while giving up five earned runs.

Andrew Kolbinger came on in relief and went 3.1 innings, striking out three hitters and giving up just a pair of hits, but the damage had already been done by the Joes.

Titans

Sunday, the team took on Sauk Centre in the third place game and again fell short, this time by a score of 9-2.

The Bandits managed 12 hits at the plate, but couldn’t get the runners in when it counted.

Kreeden Blomquist, Schumacher, Schug and Louden each had a pair of hits in the game, but again it was defensive lapses that proved costly.

Moe went three innings on the mound, scattering seven hits and giving up two earned runs.  Kolbinger again came on in relief and went two innings, while Ryan Groskreutz finished off the game on the mound.

“We could have played better,” Hanson said in summarizing his team’s first season of play in the tournament.  “Our fielding was horrendous all weekend.”

Despite the pair of loses, Hanson felt like his team learned a great deal by having the games clustered together.  

“It was our first year out there and we took fourth place,” Hanson said.  “We plan to go back next year.”