Eagles defeat Devils Lake

FARGO — The Jamestown Eagles erupted for seven runs in the seventh inning and cruised to an 18-6 victory over Devils Lake in loser-out play of the Eastern Division American Legion baseball tournament at Jack Williams Stadium on Friday.

Jamestown had lost to Devils Lake on Thursday by a 6-5 score in 11 innings in the first round.

“It’s nice especially after (Thursday) laying an egg against them in that first game,” Jamestown coach Shane Schoenberg said.

Friday, the Eagles drew five consecutive walks at one point during the game-changing third inning. Jamestown center fielder Tim Smith and third baseman Jordan Piatz had RBI singles during the rally.

“When a guy is struggling on the mound for another team, don’t help him out and swing at a bad pitch,” Schoenberg said.

Smith finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs and a run scored.

“I thought we built a lot of momentum,” Schoenberg said. “Everyone was down in the dumps after losing that first game (Thursday). They came out fired up to play.”

Devils Lake plays Grand Forks at 3 p.m. today in a challenge game with the winner earning the No. 4 seed for the Class A state tournament.

West Fargo 11, Fargo Post 2 1 (8 innings)

Tanner Dahl made sure the West Fargo Patriots would be playing for a division championship today.

The right-handed pitcher struck out 10 batters and scattered four hits en route to a complete-game victory. His performance sparked the Patriots to an 10-run victory against Fargo Post 2 in the undefeated game at the Eastern Division American Legion baseball tournament.

“My changeup was on today that was probably my best pitch,” Dahl said. “That was really working.”

West Fargo is 4-0 against Post 2 this season and Dahl has started three of those games.

“He throws three pitches for strikes and he competes,” Post 2 coach Jeff Fiechtner said of Dahl. “Today, I thought he threw better than the last two times. I thought he threw tremendous today.”

West Fargo (29-16) plays at 6 p.m. for the championship.

“I think it’s just a pride thing, you want to be the East champs,” West Fargo coach Bill Ibach said. “I don’t know that the No. 1, No. 2 seed matters because everybody out West is tough.”

West Fargo forged into the lead for good with three runs in the third inning. The Partiots took advantage of two Post 2 errors that inning. Post 2 finished with five errors.

“From our standpoint, Nick Salentine threw a great game,” Fiechtner said of his starting pitcher. “We don’t make errors and now the game is different.

“We can’t make mistakes. We make mistakes against a team like West Fargo we’re going to get beat.”

Dahl started and finished strong. He faced the minimum amount of batters in the first, second and third and sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

Dahl retired the last seven batters he faced.

“He was pitching to contact more than he has,” Ibach said of Dahl, who threw 111 pitches. “He has been throwing a lot of pitches early in games up until now.”

Ibach is pleased with how his team has played in this tournament, outscoring its opponents 30-4 in two victories.

“That’s what we’re looking to do, build momentum into the state tournament,” Ibach said.

West Fargo 11, Fargo Post 2 1 (8 innings)

Post 2 000 010 00 — 1 4 5

West Fargo 003 101 24 — 11 11 1

Salentine, Schroeder (7) and Fiechtner. Dahl and Johnson. W—Dahl. L—Salentine.

Jamestown 18, Devils Lake 6 (7 innings)

Devils Lake 110 000 4 — 6 10 4

Jamestown 007 353 x — 18 12 3

Senger, Jared Swenseth (3), Jason Swenseth (4) and Janzen. Schaefer and Walker. W—Schaefer. L—Senger. HR—Eagles, Walker.

Eric Peterson is a reporter at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.

Tags: legion baseball, sports