The Becker Buzzards put the finishing touches on an outstanding regular season with a pair of wins Sunday afternoon over the Morris Brewers, 9-1 and 6-2.

The wins pushed the team’s league record to 8-1 and with the state tournament looming next weekend, Becker will again be considered one of the favorites to bring home what would be their fifth state title.

In the first game, Tanner Bakke threw a great game going all seven innings and allowing only one run and two hits, while striking out seven batters.  The game was scoreless until Steve Newman came in for the first Buzzard run on a Jason Pfingsten RBI single in the bottom of the 3rd inning.  The Buzzards were able to open things up with three more runs in the bottom of the 4th inning, as Matt Koester, Nick Allerson, and Jon Kern all singled and scored and Newman delivered a big two RBI single as well.  The game was put out of reach in the bottom of the 6th when the Buzzards batted around and plated five more runs.

In the second game, the Buzzards took an early 1-0 lead when Newman led off with a walk and scored on an RBI single from Chico Schroeder.  Morris was able to tie the game up in the top of the third and it stayed that way until the bottom of the 4th when the Buzzards used four hits and a hit by pitch to plate four runs.  Rich Petty and Pfingsten each had RBI doubles in the inning.  The Buzzards added an insurance run in the bottom of the 5th when Koester singled and scored to make it 6-1.  Morris added a run in the top of the 6th to make it 6-2, but shutdown reliever Rich Petty worked out of the bases loaded jam and pitched a scoreless 7th to close out the victory.  Jason Pfingsten got the win, going five innings and allowing one run on four hits.  He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six.  Petty pitched the final two innings and allowed a run on two hits and three walks.  He struck out 5 batters.

Pfingsten was also named the Tri-County Lumber Player of the Day.  He finished the day 6-for-8 at the plate in addition to his pitching duties.

The team will open the defense of their state championship against Rosemount on Saturday night in Fergus Falls.  This is a rematch of last year’s state championship game in which the Buzzards slugged their way to a 12-2 victory. 

The state tournament will continue with a second round game on Sunday afternoon and then conclude with games on August 22-23 with times and locations to be determined.