WILLMAR — The Corn Belt’s Milroy Yankees and Marshall A’s went into Saturday’s elimination bracket both in search of breaking a state tournament drought. The Yankees were in search of their first appearance since 2021 and their 30th overall appearance. For the A’s, a pair of Saturday wins would have given them their first state tournament appearance since 2009. 

Yet, neither team was able to end the drought. Milroy’s pitching prevailed in the day’s first game, a 3-1 pitchers’ duel against Marshall to end the A’s season, but the short-staffed Yankees couldn’t lock up the state berth as they fell 19-0 to the Atwater Chuckers in their next elimination bracket game. 

“You can’t look at the true perspective of how it ends, per se, but at the same time I’m so proud of these guys and how they battled and never backed down despite maybe being in or out of the lineup,” Milroy manager Ryan Rohlik said. “I can’t appreciate them enough to be honest with how we’ve ridden through so many things. You have Matho’s [third baseman Aaron Mathiowetz’s] ordeal at the end of the game last weekend [in which a collision left him unconscious], so to see him playing here today I think was just a positive… But I’ve got to tip my cap to Atwater, they’re a bunch of great human beings and they earned this one, I would say, pretty darn easily today.”

Milroy pitchers Parker and Isaac Schmitt were both later drafted to Atwater’s state tournament roster, alongside Willmar’s Jayden Dierenfield, while Marshall pitchers Mitch Bouwman and Cody Wichmann were drafted to the Raymond Rockets, alongside Granite Falls’ Bennett Knapper. 

Game 1

Milroy 3, Marshall 1

Marshall native and Milroy pitcher Parker Schmitt was the driving force for the Yankee victory on Saturday with a stellar performance on the mound. His brother Isaac was out on his honeymoon, leaving the Yankees short on arms on a day that they would potentially play two games. Still, on his 20th birthday, Parker was up to the task.

“With my brother gone, that’s one of the big arms on the team that obviously we’re missing, but you’ve got to have the mindset to come in and finish the game every time,” Schmitt said after Milroy’s first game of the day, adding that he started feeling the fatigue in his legs in the seventh inning but felt that it was important to push through. “You’ve got it in your head that you’re going all nine [innings] all the time, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”

Schmitt tossed 143 pitches in the complete-game outing, battling back from several jams to hold Marshall without an earned run. He attributed his success on the day to his trust in his defense and his familiarity with the A’s.

“We’ve played them twice this year, so just knowing their weak spots is one of the biggest things. Just pitching to their weak spots where they can’t get a decent bat on the ball,” Schmitt said, showing increased efficiency after throwing 129 pitches in six innings in a 3-1 win over the A’s at Legion Field on July 7.

Schmitt didn’t allow a single earned run in the nine-inning outing, holding Marshall to eight hits on the day. He struck out four batters in the game while allowing a pair of walks and a pair of hit batters. He didn’t have a wild pitch all day.

“Parker’s been a guy on a mission this year,” Rohlik said, adding that Schmitt has looked motivated all year long after an injury cut his season short last year. “That was a very big deal just to see the way that he’s working his tail off to be ready for the season and come out and always be willing to take the ball whenever he’s asked to pitch for us… Despite there being traffic on the bases, he always stuck to his gameplan and that was to make them hit his offspeed and, fortunately for us, he made big pitch after big pitch to get out of some situations.”

After two scoreless innings, the Marshall A’s got on the board first in the bottom of the third. Chase Douglas got on base when a high throw from short glanced off Brock Schultz’s glove at first for an error. 

Douglas advanced to second on the play, getting in scoring position with one out. A pop out to first put two outs against the A’s but a Wes Sarsland chopper down the first baseline took an awkward high hop into the outfield for a go-ahead RBI single. 

The A’s lead, however, was short-lived. Andy Schmidt and Jake Tauer walked and singled to put two runners on with two outs in the top of the fourth. Schultz then put the Yankees on the board with an RBI single to tie the game up at one run apiece.

Brian Dolan and Colten Minkel kept the rally going with another pair of RBI singles to make the score 3-1 in favor of Milroy before the inning finally ended with a strikeout. That one-run lead held through the end of the game.

While he wasn’t able to earn a victory on the day, Marshall pitcher Mitch Bouwman did everything he could to keep the A’s in the game. Despite finishing with 10 strikeouts over the nine-inning outing, he was efficient enough to keep his pitch count down to just 114 on the day. Bouwman limited the Yankees to three runs on seven hits and a pair of walks, with 68% of his pitches going for strikes.

“I’m just trying to give up the least amount [of runs] possible,” Bouwman said. “I want to give my offense enough room to work, so just trying to keep it as close as I can by myself and with the defense behind me.”

Leaving runners on base had plagued the A’s against the Yankees in the teams’ pair of regular-season matchups, in which the Yankees defeated Marshall 5-3 in extra innings in Marshall and a 5-4 walk-off win over the A’s at Yankee Field.

Marshall left 18 runners on base in the teams’ first matchup at Legion Field, including 10 in scoring position, and another eight runners on base and five in scoring position in the rematch on July 17. The trend continued on Saturday, with Marshall leaving 15 runners on base and nine in scoring position in what was their final game of the season.

“Parker was just throwing strikes. We were just battling up there every pitch and hats off to him,” Marshall manager Ryan Schwagel said of Marshall’s struggles with runners in scoring position. “When you leave 15 runners on base and at least half of those in scoring position, that’s what the playoffs come down to: good defense and clutch hitting. We just didn’t have it today.”

While Marshall left the bases loaded twice and left two runners on another three times, Milroy was efficient with its baserunners. While the Yankees had nine baserunners on the day, they left just five stranded.

Jake Tauer and Brock Schultz were the only Yankees to reach base multiple times in the win. Tauer had a double, a single and a walk on the day while Schultz added a pair of singles. Tauer was responsible for the Yankees’ only extra-base hit and one of just two walks for the Yanks, alongside Schmidt. 

For the A’s, Peyton Grant and Chase Douglas each reached base three times. Grant got on with a single, a walk and got hit by a pitch while Douglas had a single, a walk and reached on an error before scoring Marshall’s lone run of the day. 

Connor Neubeck also singled twice, helping Marshall to outhit Milroy 8-7 in the loss.

“It’s two good teams that know each other. There’s no secrets that you’re going to all of a sudden showcase against one another, so it’s going to come down to a big play here or there,” Rohlik said. “Fortunately this year, we were able to have some good fortunes come our way in those games, but I have a bunch of respect for Ryan [Schwagel] and the way he runs the A’s. They’re so athletic and they’re guys you want to keep off the bases. We maybe didn’t do the best of that, but at the same time, they didn’t come around to score so those are the big things that you look at.”

Talan Plante led off the fifth inning for Marshall with a deep single to center field, hitting a ball just feet away from getting another bounce and turning into a double. AJ Toulouse kept the momentum rolling when he hit a slow dribbler down the first baseline. Schmitt tried to grab the ball and flip it to first, but the errant throw allowed Toulouse to reach safely on the play and allowed Plante to advance to third. 

The Yankees got a pop out and a fly out to put two down and Wes Sarsland popped a ball up to third base on the next play. A Milroy error on the play allowed the ball to land safely but, despite there being two outs, the Marshall runners waited at their bases rather than running. Another fly out to right field ended the Marshall rally with them being unable to capitalize on the opportunities.

The A’s also put two runners in scoring position in the seventh, when back-to-back singles from Douglas and Schwagel put two on and a Sarsland sacrifice bunt moved them both into scoring position with one out. Yet, Schmitt effectively held the runners on the ground out the next at-bat, and after a hit batter had loaded the bases, a pop fly ended the inning.

With their backs against the wall, Cody Wichmann and Peyton Grant got on base with one out in the ninth. Yet, a strikeout and a deep fly ball to right-center ended the inning with the tying run stranded.

Marshall finishes its season at 12-12 on the year. Still, the A’s 25-man roster includes 20 players under the age of 23 and only two players over the age of 26. This remains a team with a long window of contention.

“Just having the same guys back every year, that’s a big thing for us,” Schwagel said. “We’ve been pretty good the last couple of years now at retaining all of our guys and hopefully everybody’s back next year for another run.”

Schwagel added that he was proud of the way his team competed this season, noting specifically that the A’s handed the Bird Island Bullfrogs one of just two losses to date and remaining consistently competitive with the Corn Belt’s second-seeded Raymond Rockets and Milroy Yankees.

“We just need to hit and keep moving forward. Keep our heads up and just keep playing baseball,” Schwagel said. 

Atwater 19, Milroy 0 (7 inn.)

Short on arms after the first game, the Milroy Yankees couldn’t shut down the Atwater bats in a second elimination game with a state tournament berth on the line. Atwater’s Josh Kingery homered on the first pitch of the bottom of the first to set the tone and the Chuckers coasted from there to a 19-0 victory.

Kingery, the 2021 Gatorade Minnesota Baseball Player of the Year during his time at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City High School, was dominant in the Chuckers’ win, homering twice and finishing with five RBIs in five plate appearances. In addition to his pair of deep shots well over the wall, he also reached on a single, a walk and an error and stole a base in the second inning.

Atwater scored four runs in each of the first two innings. After a down third inning in which they scored just one run, they rattled off eight fourth-inning runs on five walks, four hits and an error to put the game away.

David Schmidt got on base in the top of the first by singling on the first pitch he saw and advancing to third on a ground out and a fly out. A second consecutive fly out to right field left Schmidt stranded and marked the last time the Yankees got a runner past second base in the game.

The only other batter to get past first was Jackson Hughes, who reached on an error and stole second in the third inning before getting stranded with a fly out and a lineout. Hughes was also the only Yankee to reach base twice after getting on via fielder’s choice in the fifth.

Jake Tauer, Brock Schultz and Colten Minkel each also singled for the Yankees while Brian Dolan reached on a walk. 

As a team, Milroy finished with four hits to Atwater’s 15 and four errors to Atwater’s one. None of Milroy’s hits were extra-base hits while the Chuckers recorded four doubles and a pair of homers.

David Kingery earned the complete-game shutout victory for Atwater. He threw just 61 pitches over seven innings, surrendering four hits and a walk while striking out one batter.

For the Yankees, David Schmidt was tagged with the loss after tossing 1 1/3 innings. Aaron Mathiowetz tossed another 1 2/3, Nathan Deutz threw one inning and Ty Kemp tossed another two. 

Kemp was the only pitcher to allow fewer than four runs, allowing a pair of earned runs on one hit and a hit batter.

Schmidt was tagged for seven runs, six of which were earned, while Mathiowetz and Deutz allowed another six and four runs respectively.

Milroy finishes its season at 15-9 on the year after finishing third in the Corn Belt during the season. Rohlik said that, as they head into the offseason, he’ll miss the Corn Belt as we know it with the league realignment sending teams over to the Tomahawk or the new Class B instead of Class C.

“It’s new experiences, it’s new teams,” Rohlik said. “There are rumors that you’re going to have to play all your section teams once, so then that goes to our league. You have all these great games against some of the best in the league playing twice, now you might only play them once… It’s just going to be different.

“All in all, we’d love to still be playing, We’d love to have a much better outcome than we did in game 2, but — not to keep repeating myself — I’m just so proud of the guys and how they grind,” Rohlik said. “We had a lot of dudes fighting injuries that weren’t going to come off the field no matter what. I just want to thank them for all their time, dedication and commitment to amateur baseball, it’s a fun game whether you get humbled or not.”