Photo by Jake Przytarski Hadley’s Nick Bruning swings at a pitch during their playoff game against Worthington on Saturday. The Buttermakers defeated the Cubs 6-2 to win the series 2-0 and advance to the second round.

HADLEY - After a decisive 10-3 victory in Game 1 of the best-of-three series against the Worthington Cubs on Thursday, the Hadley Buttermakers took Game 2 on Saturday by a score of 6-2 in a strong collective effort in the field and in the batter’s box.

Buttermakers coach Myron Bennett liked his team’s approach at the plate but is still hoping for more offense as the competition gets stiffer in the next round.

“We were pretty aggressive, we only had a couple walks but swung the bat well,” said Bennett. “Teams are getting tougher and we’ll have to hit a little better in the next round.”

Bennett was also impressed by Sam Erickson’s performance on the hill for the Buttermakers as he led the team with a strong complete-game outing finishing with a total of nine strikeouts. He would get off to a rocky start in the top of the first, though. After retiring the leadoff man on a popout to center, he gave up a deep solo shot to right field for the Cubs first hit and run of the game. Unfazed, Erickson dug in and drew a popout in the next at-bat followed by his first strikeout to end the frame.

The resiliency shown by Erickson throughout the game drew the praise of Bennett in his assessment of Saturday’s performance.

“Sam did a good job of pitching, (he) kept them off balance,” said Bennett. “He battled the whole game.”

The Buttermakers wasted no time in answering back when it was their turn to step up to the plate in the bottom of the inning. Joe Larson led off for Hadley and smoked a double down the first baseline for his first of three hits on the day. Derek Lieser followed it up with a single to left field in the next at-bat. Nick Bruning continued the offensive surge with a frozen rope of a double for their third consecutive hit to score Lieser and Larson to give the Buttermakers a 2-1 lead. The next three batters were unable to keep the hits coming and the inning ended with Hadley holding a one-run lead heading into the top of the second.

Back in the field, an error to the leadoff hitter and a single by the next Cub batter put two men on base with no outs to start the second inning. The infield bounced back to turn a double play in the next at-bat for the first two outs. Erickson followed up the double play with a strikeout to end the inning and the Cubs scoring threat to bring his team back to the dugout.

Trent Carlson led off for the Buttermakers to start the bottom of the second and drew a walk to bring up Eric Wieneke with a man on. During Wieneke’s plate appearance, Carlson got caught in a pickle between first and second and was eventually tagged for the first out. Wieneke would end up popping out and Derek Platt followed with a strikeout in his first plate appearance for a 1-2-3 inning for the Cubs.

In the top of the third Erickson got the first out of the half-inning via a strikeout for his third of the game. Worthington got a two-out single after the second batter grounded out, but a popout in the following at-bat left the Cubs runner stranded at first still trailing 2-1 heading into the latter half of the inning.

A pair of groundouts for the Buttermakers brought Bruning back up to the plate in the bottom of the third looking to continue his success at the plate. Bruning did not disappoint as he got the two-out rally started for Hadley with a single to bring up Blake Rogers. Rogers drew a walk in his second plate appearance leaving it up to Max Zwart to bring Bruning home. Zwart did just that with an RBI single to extend the lead to two runs, but the Buttermakers were not done yet. A Carlson walk loaded the bases for Chris Halbur, who drew a walk for the Buttermakers’ second run of the inning. Wieneke, in his at-bat, made contact on a hard liner but the shortstop made the catch to end the inning with three runners left stranded.

Back on the hill in the top of the fourth, Erickson quickly retired the first two Cubs batters with a pair of strikeouts. He ran into some trouble in the next at-bat as the Worthington hitter crushed a solo home run, this time to left, for the Cubs’ second run of the game. Unable to add any more offense after the following batter hit a single down the first baseline, the Buttermakers carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the inning.

The bats cooled and the pitchers started to find their rhythm in the bottom of the fourth all the way into the bottom of the seventh inning, where the Buttermakers bats came alive once again.

Bruning and Rogers led off the seventh with back-to-back solo home runs to provide the final two runs of the game that drew a roar from the Hadley crowd. The Buttermakers would carry the four-run lead all the way to the end en route to their victory on Saturday to move past the Cubs in the best-of-three series.

With their series win, the Buttermakers will find out later today who they will be matched up with in the second round of the Gopher/First Nite League playoff series.