The Becker Buzzards 35 and over baseball team finished the regular season Saturday with a double header versus the Alexandria Classic Clippers.

 

A  pair of pitcher duels ensued on a hot, sunny day as the Buzzards lost 3-1 and 6-4 with both games going into extra innings.

 

Clippers 3, Buzzards 1

 

 Jason Pfingsten of the Buzzards and Greg Serum of the Classic Clippers kept runners off the bases until Becker broke through in the third inning. Deron Trovall, Jason Baune and Mike Doetkott hit consecutive singles with two outs off of Serum to score the game’s first run. 

 

Alexandria tied it in the top of the fourth inning and finally broke the 1-1 score with two runs in the eighth inning to secure the win for the visitors. 

 

Pfingsten went the distance for the Buzzards, giving up six hits and striking out nine. 

 

Serum only allowed five hits while striking out four Buzzard batters.

 

 Becker’s Matt Eigen and Alexandria’s Mike Nelson dueled it up in game two. 

 

The Clippers had an opportunity in the first inning with runners on second and third and two outs but the threat disappeared as second baseman Trovall backhanded a sure single behind second base to throw out the runner at first to end the inning. 

 

The Buzzards scored the game’s first runs in the third inning as Kevin Krenz and  Doetkott scored on a Pfingsten single. 

 

Alexandria had another chance in the fourth inning with runners in scoring position, but an unassisted double play by Pfingsten ended the inning.

 

Becker held the lead until the final frame when Alexandria scored two runs to tie it up at two in the seventh.

 

The eighth inning started with a bang for the Classic Clippers as they scored four runs to take a 6-2 lead. 

 

The Buzzards got their bats going as well when Doetkott singled, Pfingsten was hit by a pitch and Dave Hinnenkamp doubled to score both base runners to bring the game to within two. But that’s all the Buzzard’s could muster.

 

“These were two hard losses for us today,” Mike Doetkott said. “JP (Pfingsten) and Iggy (Eigen) pitched terrific games to give us a chance to win both. We all feel bad for those guys because we didn’t give them any run support. We’ve lost five games by a total of eight runs.”

 

 The Buzzards finished the regular season with a 2-10 record in their inaugural season playing in the newly-formed Central Minnesota League. According to co-manager Trovall, the CML is “questionably the best league in the MSMABA (Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association) and is the governing body for three leagues and 36 teams which include the River Valley League, Northwest Minnesota League along with the Central Minnesota League.”

 

 The MSMABA holds an annual state tournament for all 36 teams which are divided into different brackets based on record. 

 

The Buzzards travel to Waconia Saturday as the #1 seed in their bracket. They will play the Vadnais Heights Jayhawks at 2:30 p.m. 

Sunday, Becker will play the TC Bats at 11 a.m. in St. Peter. 

 

“The MSMABA recognized the competition in the CML and — even with a 2-10 record — they still gave us a #1 seed,” Trovall said. “We have played the Jayhawks before but not for a few years”. 

 

The Vadnais Heights team was formally the Seafoam Hawks that played in the NSCBL. 

 

“The TC Bats are a team from the metro area that hasn’t played a game all year,” said Trovall. “The team was put together to fill out the bracket. We have no idea who they are but we look forward to playing them in St. Peter on Sunday.”