Photo by Samantha Davis. Yellow Medicine East's Gunnar Fagen (left), Eric Jimenez (center) and Braden Nelson (right) huddle together after the Sting's 7-5 Section 3A quarterfinal win over Murray County Central Thursday night at Yankee Field in Milroy.

MILROY — After resuming play on Wednesday in the fourth inning with a Tuesday postponement due to rain, the No. 2 Yellow Medicine East baseball team is advancing to the Section 3A semifinals with a 7-5 quarterfinal win over top-seeded Murray County Central at Yankee Field in Milroy.

“I’m so happy for our kids. They put in a lot of time and work, and they’ve worked their tails off. Just very proud of our kids, YME coach Nick Richter said. “It just comes down to the work the boys have put in. They’ve put in the time and effort for it all, and it’s showing.”

The game picked up in the top of fourth inning with YME batting and holding a 5-3 lead after Tuesday’s first three innings. MCC scored three runs in the bottom of the third before the postponement to climb back to a two-run deficit.

The Rebels put up a strong fight defensively in the final three innings to now allow the Sting to deepen their lead after scoring two in the bottom of the fifth, yet YME returned the favor to secure its victory.

“I was very happy with the way we battled back,” MCC coach Paul Counter said. “We just made a few too many mistakes to come away with a victory unfortunately.”

YME finished the game with 13 hits and one error to MCC’s nine hits and two errors.

Pitching-wise for MCC, Dugan Kluis spent the first 2 2/3 innings in the circle before Teague Meyer relieved for four innings. Dylan Kluis finished the final out in the top of the seventh with a strikeout.

“Teague did a really nice job. He got ahead of hitters, and he did what we needed and kept us in the game,” Counter said. “We just couldn’t get a few enough runs to get all the way back.”

For the Sting, Braden Nelson pitched the first three innings and Gunnar Fagen threw the final four innings.

Both Dugan and Meyer finished with two strikeouts, while Nelson and Fagen both had a pair of strikeouts as well.

Resuming play with a two-run advantage, YME started the fourth with another two runs to take a 7-3 lead, both off a Fagen grounder two-run RBI single to left field.

Kian Christianson and Nelson both scored off the hits, both of who got on base with singles.

The Rebels put pressure on YME offensively in the bottom of the fifth inning with two runs off four hits, but it ultimately wasn’t enough as the Sting’s defense remained cohesive in the sixth and seventh.

MCC’s two runs came from Meyer and Dylan, with Meyer scoring off Dylan’s single line drive to right field, and Dylan visiting home with a Carson Lewis sacrifice fly to left center field.

MCC catcher Dugan had a pair of throw down tag-outs to second base, in the fourth and sixth inning, with shortstop Tristan Behrends responsible for both catches and tags.

With Fagen still on the mound for YME and the Rebels up to the plate for their final at-bat, the Stings completed three quick outs to book their semifinal spot with a pair of center field fly ball catches from Drew Monson, and an infield ground out.

“Gunnar has been our ace all year. He’s tough, and you would never guess he’s a freshman,” Richter said. “He’s just such a well-balanced kid and works hard, and the guys trust him on the mound.”

YME’s win handed the Rebels’ just their second loss of the season.

“It’s been a wild game over the last 24 hours and two days. The weather wasn’t great, but we didn’t play our best yesterday,” Counter said. “We were just hoping today would be a new, fresh start for us. We battled back, it just wasn’t enough.”

Fagen went 3 for 4 at the plate with three RBIs to lead YME offensively, also scoring two runs, while Wilke also shared a team-high three RBIs.

Monson, Nelson and Jacob Peterson all had two hits apiece as well.

For MCC, Meyer went 4 for 4 at the plate and had a team-best two runs. Krew Schneider followed with two hits.

“Hats off to MCC … They’re good. I know how good of a team we just happened to beat,” Richter said. “They [MCC] are tough up and down their lineup … But once again, just super proud of our boys.”

The Sting’s bats got going promptly in their first at-bat appearance, scoring three runs off four hits to build an early 3-0 edge.

Monson was the first to get on base with a walk, and accounted for YME’s first run of the day with a Nelson double line drive to center field to advance to third, and went home with a Fagen RBI single with a hit to right field.

Nelson and Fagen proceeded to both score off a two-run RBI double to right field from Gage Wilke before MCC completed a double play to end the inning.

Rebels’ second baseman Tristan Behrends caught a line drive and threw to first baseman Carson Lewis to force out a YME runner attempting to take second.

The second inning was scoreless with the Sting and Rebels both completing three quick outs, until the two teams each fed off one another in the third inning combining for five runs.

YME brought in a pair of runs to top the inning for a 5-0 advantage with two sacrifice hits from Wilke and Jacob Peterson to score Fagen and Eric Jimenez, respectively.

The Rebels got their bats going in the bottom of the frame to bring themselves back into the game, down 5-3.

Carter Hanson got the momentum going with a single, and made it to second off a YME throwing error to first base.

Meyer then got on base with an infield single and got to second base as YME attempted to chase down Hanson going to third, who also made it on base safely.

Hanson scored and Meyer advanced to third off a Dugan sacrifice pop out to right field, and Meyer next went home off a wild pitch.

The Rebels’ third run came from Dylan, initially getting on base with a single line drive to short left field getting past YME’s shortstop, with a Carson Lewis sacrifice hit.

MCC (16-2) next will play No. 4 Lac qui Parle Valley in the elimination bracket quarterfinals today at 5 p.m. at Irish Yard in Milroy.

“The good news is our season isn’t over,” Counter said. “We got to clean up our defensively, and hopefully we get enough runs across where we can continue our season.”

YME (12-5) will next play No. 3 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (16-6) in Saturday’s semifinals at 12 p.m. again at Yankee Field in Milroy, both teams one win away from the championship game.

The Knights upset top-seeded Dawson-Boyd 9-2 Wednesday evening in the quarterfinals.

“[We have to] stay aggressive and stay after it,” Richter said. “We’re still going to plug away here. There’s definitely things we can get better at, and need to get better at, if we want to keep playing.”