Photo by Sam Thiel Minneota’s Adam Durfee connects for a double during their game against Montevideo Wednesday. The Mudhens won 4-2.

MINNEOTA – Entering Wednesday night’s game against each other, the Minneota Mudhens and Montevideo Spartans both owned a 5-4 conference record in the Land O’Ducks League. The winner of the matchup would be able to control their own destiny to the region tournament.

With the combination of some early offense and solid pitching and defense, the Mudhens earned a key 4-2 victory over the Spartans and now move to 6-4 in the conference.

Minneota struck first in the bottom half of the opening inning, scoring three early runs to put themselves up 3-0. After a Beau Buysse single led of the frame, Jordan Beck reached on a bunt single to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Tyson Sonnenburg reached on a fielder’s choice before Adam Durfee stepped up and smacked a two-run double to put the Mudhens up 2-0. Austin Buysse brought in the game’s third run on a sacrifice later in the inning.

Neither team would score over the next couple of innings, as both starting pitchers would settle into their respective zones. The Spartans would get on the board in the top of the fourth thanks to a two-run triple, cutting the deficit to just one run, but a double play and a groundout ended the inning for Montevideo.

Minneota would get an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth when Sonnenburg would get aboard on a single before stealing second and coming around on an errant throw to first on a ground ball hit by Durfee.

The Spartans threatened to score in the top half of the eighth when they reached on an error and a single put runners on first and second with two outs, knocking Mudhens’ starter Tommy Fischer out of the game. Danny Hennen would come on in relief and get a key strikeout to end the threat and keep the lead at two runs. Hennen then came on in the ninth and coaxed three consecutive groundouts to end the game.

Fischer lasted 7.2 innings on the hill, allowing eight hits and two runs while striking out four to earn the win. He said what worked well for him was his

“I think pounding the low zone; they weren’t really swinging at it right away so I was able to get some strikeouts right away,” Fischer said. “I was just trying to stay low and they were hitting ground balls off of that, so that was key.”

Fischer added the defensive support from his teammates was fun to watch and makes his job a lot easier.

“I don’t know how many plays Adam Durfee made at shortstop; he’s going to be amazing at Augustana next year,” Fischer said. “Tyson made a huge catch in the seventh inning; I’ve never seen him jump that high. It’s just so much fun to pitch for these guys when they’re making plays like that.”

Durfee led the way offensively for Minneota, getting a pair of hits and a couple of RBIs while Beau Buysse also got a pair of hits.

Durfee said their key on the offensive end was taking advantage of having baserunners and getting timely hits.

“I think we jumped on the fastball and we didn’t get that many baserunners but when we did, we took advantage of it,” Durfee said.

Minneota will face Cottonwood on Sunday at 3 p.m. before squaring off against Madison later that night at 7:30 p.m.

Fischer said their biggest takeaway will be continuing to play well and achieve their goal of making the Top 6 in the league.

“I think we’re sitting around sixth place and the Top 6 make the regional automatically, and I don’t think we’ve done that in a really long time,” Fischer said. “The atmosphere is a lot of fun here knowing that we can doing something.”

Minneota 4, Montevideo 2

Montevideo 000 200 000 — 2 8 4

Minneota 300 010 00x — 4 10 1

HITTING: Minneota (Durfee 2 H, 2 RBI; Beau Buysse 2 H).

PITCHING (IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO): Minneota (Fischer 7.2-8-2-2-1-4; Hennen 1.1-0-0-0-0-1).