After Wednesday's matchup with Thief River Falls in the first round of the Division 1, District 9 American Legion baseball tournament, Moorhead coach Paul Cragg complained about his team's shortcomings.
"You can't give free bases, you can't walk too many guys, you can't have passed balls and you can't have errors," he said.
One can only imagine his sentiments had he coached in the other dugout.
The Blues took advantage of three consecutive Thief River Falls throwing errors in the bottom of the fifth inning to score six runs and break open a close affair, eventually taking a 16-6 victory in six innings at Washington Ballpark.
Moorhead (31-14) moves on to face the East Grand Forks in the quarterfinals of the double-elimination tournament tonight at 7.
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Leading 7-6 heading into the bottom of the fifth, Moorhead's Matt Lau and Jason Pieterick both reached base to start the inning. Subsequent at-bats from Chris Dahl, Brock Gnadt and Drew Carmichael all produced single unearned runs - thanks to wild throws to first base from Thief River Falls infielders.
The prolonged inning also allowed the Blues to score three more runs - one on a Jake Krause sacrifice fly and two on a home run from older brother Ryan Krause.
Ryan Krause also homered twice in the first leg of a doubleheader Saturday, giving him three homers in five days and seven for the season.
Jake Krause also scored in the third after reaching on an error. In all, Thief River Falls was charged with five errors, five walks and two hit batters; Moorhead had half as many hits (eight) as runs (16).
"We got lucky, and they gave us back some gifts," Cragg said. "We took advantage of them and got some timely hits."
Possibly even more important than timely hitting was a dose of smallball off Moorhead's bats.
Three of Moorhead's runs came on sacrifice flies, one came on a near-perfect suicide squeeze from Chad Dahl and one scored on a deep fielder's choice to short from Justin Pieterick.
But despite the lopsided end result, the Blues struggled early and built a 5-0 deficit before setting foot in the batter's box.
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Starting pitcher Matt Bowar, who no-hit Perham in his last start, surrendered five runs on four hits and three walks in the top of the first. But Moorhead scored three runs in the bottom of the inning on a Matt Lau home run, and Bowar held up for four more innings before Shane Bushland struck out the side in the sixth.
Three runs in the bottom of the sixth gave Moorhead the win by virtue of the 10-run rule. The Blues have now 10-runned six of their last seven opponents.
"We were kind of lackadaisical at the beginning," Bowar said. "Our infield and outfield weren't too sharp. We've just got to come out prepared better tomorrow."
T. River Falls 500 100 x- 6 7 5
Moorhead 303 163 x- 16 8 1
Collins, Carlson (5) and Genereux. Bowar and C. Dahl, Bushland (6) and Nelson (6). W-Bowar (5-1). L-Collins. HR-Moorhead, Lau (6), R. Krause (7).
Readers can reach Forum reporter Aaron Blake at (701) 235-7311
