Photo by Brennen Rupp Wabasso’s Nick Altermatt fields a ground ball during their game against Waite Park in the Wood Bat Classic Sunday in Milroy.

MARSHALL – The Wabasso Legion baseball team went 2-2 during the Wood Bat Classic held in Marshall and Milroy this weekend.

Wabasso kicked off the weekend with an impressive 8-4 victory Friday over Albany. The Rabbits recorded 11 hits in the win, with Nick Altermatt and Ty Kemp both picking up three hits. Tony Franta drove in two runs, while CJ Theis, Kemp, Liebl, Jayden Eis and Nick Ludwig all drove in one run.

“The bats were swinging well,” Wabasso coach Joshua Guetter said. “We were aggressive at the plate. We were moving the bases around.”

Wabasso kicked off the second day of the Wood Bat Classic on Saturday with a disappointing extra innings loss to Minneapolis Post 1.

Liebl got Wabasso on the board first with an RBI single in the top of the third. The Lakers answered back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.

The Lakers added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth Liebl struck again with an RBI single to trim the Lakers’ lead to 4-2. Franta drove in a run an RBI groundout to make it a 4-3 game. Brock Rohlik tied the game with an RBI single.

Neither team was able to break the tie in the seventh inning and in the eighth inning Wabasso broke through for four runs to take a comfortable 8-4 lead into the bottom half of the inning. The Lakers rallied back and scored four runs to force another extra frame.

In the ninth inning Franta drove in one run to give Wabasso a 9-8 lead. In the bottom of the ninth the Lakers scored two runs to pick up a thrilling 10-9 victory.

“That was a tough loss,” Guetter said. “We should have had it, but we didn’t pull it off in the end. I was proud of the way that we bounced back after a tough loss like that. It says a lot about these guys and how they are able to bounce back after a tough loss.”

During the second game on Saturday Wabasso defeated Willmar, 8-3. Just like in the first game of the weekend, Wabasso recorded 11 hits en rout to an impressive victory.

Altermatt, Caleb Frericks, Eis and Franta all picked up two hits to lead the way for Wabasso.

On Sunday Wabasso came up short against Waite Park, 5-4.

Liebl got the scoring started for Wabasso when he drove in Altermatt in the first inning. In the bottom half of the first inning Altermatt flashed the leather making three nice plays at shortstop to keep Waite Park off the scoreboard.

In the top of the third Liebl struck again with another RBI to give Wabasso a 2-0 lead. Waite Park broke through in the bottom half of the inning, scoring five runs to take a 5-2 lead.

Altermatt once again flashed the glove when he made a leaping grab to end the fourth inning.

In the top of the sixth Kemp drove in one run to trim Waite Park’s lead to 5-3. In the top of the seventh inning Liebl drove in his third run of the game on an RBI double to make it a 5-4 game. Unfortunately, Wabasso was unable to drive him in to extend the game.

“I thought we put up a good fight overall,” Guetter said. “They battled back after getting down. That’s what we’ve been doing all weekend. I was proud of their performance. It’s too bad we couldn’t come out with a win.”

Wabasso will be back in action today against Windom. It will be Wabasso’s fifth game four days.

“We are just going to get right back at it,” Guetter said. “We played a lot of baseball this weekend. We used a lot of pitchers, but were going to go right back out there and battle again.”