by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor
Thief River Falls defeated Warroad 6-4 Tuesday night in Warroad to advance to Thursday’s Section 8AA quarterfinal round in Park Rapids. The first round playoff game served as the rubber match between the Prowlers and Warriors. The teams split a regular season twinbill May 22 in Warroad. “Going into the game, when we just played Warroad a week ago, we knew what their order was capable of doing and we had just seen Moyer on the mound for them too,” said Thief River Falls Head Coach Mike Gullingsrud. “I thought our guys did an excellent job of adjusting at the plate and we had much better results the second time through the order,” Gullingsrud added. “We also had several key at bats where we were in an 0-2 hole and either walked, were hit by a pitch or hit a home run (Manderud).” Warroad took an early 2-0 lead with runs in the second and third innings. Thief River Falls answered with a four-run fourth and added a run in the fifth to back starter Grant Hartmann with a 5-2 lead. Warroad picked up a pair of runs in the sixth, but the Prowlers answered in the top of the seventh with a run off of Warroad reliever Keaton Hoffman to push the lead to 6-4. Hartmann picked up the win, allowing four runs in six innings. “Grant did a great job of working out of a couple jams and he had pretty good control throughout the six innings,” Gullingsrud said. “He has been our most consistent pitcher all season and he had a great mindset entering the game after gaining the win on the mound over Warroad last week.” Dylan Manderud pitched a scoreless seventh to get the save and send the Prowlers to the Section 8AA quarterfinals. “Once Grant was able to get us deep into the game, it was very nice to have Dylan for the seventh inning,” Gullingsrud said. “He was throwing hard and had his curv
eball working for a strike too. Other than one walk allowed in the inning, the other players didn’t have very good swings and he was able to gain the save.” Brandon Bruggeman, Manderud and Hartmann each had two hits in the game. The Prowlers’ sixth through nine hitters were able to draw seven walks in the game – three of which came from Brayden Johnson – and a few of them were in situations where we were down 0-2 in the count and battled all the way back to get on base. “As a team, we only had one strikeout against us and that is a compliment to the team with their approach and how they battled in each at bat,” Gullingsrud said.
Game 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 r h e
TRF …………………0 0 0 4 1 0 1 - 6 9 2
Warroad …………. 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 - 4 5 0
Pitching – (TRF) Grant Hartmann – W, 6 IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts; Dylan Manderud – S, 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 1 walk; Jaron Moyer – L, 6 IP, 9 hits, 5 runs, 5 earned runs, 4 walks, 1 strikeout, 1 home run; Keaton Hoffman 1 IP, 0 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 3 walks.
Offensive highlights – (TRF) Brandon Bruggeman 2/5, 2 RBI; Dylan Manderud 2/4, home run, run, RBI; Grant Hartmann 2/4, run; Keaden Kempert 1/3, double; (Warroad) Max Gausen 1/4, RBI; Keaton Hoffman1/3, double, 2 RBI; Jaret Furuseth 1/3, double, run.
