Photo by Sam Thiel Milroy’s Cody Mather delivers a pitch during their playoff game against Heron Lake on Sunday. The Irish defeated the Lakers 5-0 to win the series 2-1 and advance to the second round.

MILROY – After Heron Lake took down the Milroy Irish amateur baseball team in Game 2 of their best-of-three series on Saturday, both team knew Sunday’s performance needed to be special in order to survive.

The Irish put Cody Mather on the mound. The ace righthander took care of the rest.

Mather was strong all afternoon, holding the Lakers to three hits in a complete-game shutout as Milroy advanced to the next round with a 5-0 victory.

Just like they did in Game 1 of the series, the Irish used a solid start on the offensive end, getting a one-out walk from Tony Ross before Tyler Peterson connected on a single and Brady Lanoue drew a walk to load the bases. A fielder’s choice from Derek Riley brought in a run in the process and gave Milroy a 1-0 lead after one.

After Heron Lake couldn’t take advantage of a walk in the top of the second, the Irish added to their lead in the bottom half of the frame. After a leadoff walk from Anthony Dolan, Tyler Patterson advanced him to second with a sacrifice bunt before a wild pitch pushed him to third. Lucas Dolan then drew a walk to put runners on the corners before Moses Dolan grounded into a fielder’s choice, but outran the double play attempt to bring in a runner and make it 2-0 Milroy.

The Irish continued to find more offense in the bottom of the third, as Ross led things off with a single before Peterson reached on an error. Lanoue then produced the third run of the game for Milroy with an RBI single to extend the Irish advantage to 3-0.

Mather continued to find his groove on the mound in the fourth with another 1-2-3 frame while picking up his second strikeout of the game. Milroy then had a chance to add to its lead in the bottom half of the frame with a walk from Moses Dolan and a infield single from Dominic Dolan, but couldn’t take advantage to maintain its three-run lead after four.

Neither team found scoring in the fifth, which was highlighted by a pair of strikeouts from Mather in the top of the inning.

Heron Lake, after not being able to find much offense through five innings, got a single to break up a no-hitter bid by Mather with two outs. The Milroy starter responded right back with a strikeout to end the half-inning and keep the lead at still 3-0.

The Irish got things going again on the offensive end in the bottom of the sixth, using a pair of singles from Anthony Dolan and Patterson before Moses Dolan brought in another run on a fielder’s choice to bring it to 4-0. Milroy had a chance later in the frame to do more damage with the bases loaded, but a popout quickly ended the additional scoring threat.

The Lakers began the top of the seventh with another chance to get on the scoreboard thanks to a hit batter and an error on a pickoff attempt with no outs, but Mather continued to let his defense do the work by getting a flyout and two popouts to end the frame.

Milroy added to its lead in the bottom half of the inning, getting a leadoff walk from Lanoue before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt from Riley. After a walk from Anthony Dolan and a sacrifice fly from Patterson put runners on the corners, the Irish pushed their lead to 5-0 on a wild pitch.

After a scoreless eighth, Mather went back out to cap off his outing while Heron Lake looked for some offense to keep its season alive. The Lakers would get a one-out, broken-bat single and a wild pitch with two outs to put a runner on second, but Mather finished his superb pitching performance by coaxing one final groundout to seal the shutout win.

Milroy Irish manager Bob Dolan said he was pleased with his team’s effort and felt Mather set the tone of the game right from the start.

“Just a great game from Cody. We got the early run first, but Cody set the tone early,” coach Dolan said. “He’s our best pitcher and when he’s on, he’s hard to beat. I wasn’t too worried about the game when he goes out on the mound.”

Moses Dolan led the way for Milroy with a 2 for 3 day at the plate. Coach Dolan said the key for them offensively was their patience at the plate and getting their damage done without many hits.

“I think the biggest thing was just to be patient,” coach Dolan said. “We really didn’t have many hits early, but we were patient and they had a lot of walks, we bunted when we needed to, and we were patient.”

Mather finished with no runs allowed on just three hits while striking out seven. Coach Dolan said Mather has a lot of good movement with his pitches and also credited the defense for making great plays behind him to earn the win.

“He’s got good movement. His fastball has got a lot of tail on it and he isn’t afraid to throw a curveball anytime,” coach Dolan said. “We also had great defense. Patterson made a great catch in right field and Dominic made some great plays at short as well.”

The Irish will now await their second round fate today. Coach Dolan said their biggest takeaway going into their next series will be taking a similar approach as they did for the first round.

“The regions are tough. You’ve got to get down to the small-ball play again and play good defense,” coach Dolan said. “We did that this series and I think we can do the exact same thing next series.”