Photo by Samantha Davis. Minneota second baseman Jack Lacek successfully receives a throw from catcher Isaac Pohlen and tags out a Dawson runner stealing second base during a O' Ducks Teal League matchup Wednesday night at K.P. Kompelien Field.

MINNEOTA — In a competitive, down-to-the-wire Land O’ Ducks Teal League matchup, the Minneota Mudhens prevailed for a 4-3 victory over the Dawson Drakes Wednesday evening behind a string of big hits late in the game.

“It was awesome. Dawson has a good, young team, and we knew that coming in,” Minneota manager Austin Buysse said. “Our bats weren’t really working after the first inning, but we did enough at the end there.”

The game was aggressive from the jump on both ends, with Minneota scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Dawson scored one in each of the first three innings to gain a slight edge, 3-2, but went scoreless the remaining six innings.

After two scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth, Minneota’s Buysse hit the game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to meet Dawson at 3-3. Isaac Pohlen scored off the hit, who initially hit a line-drive single to left field.

Pohlen came up big for the Mudhens with the go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to put Minneota up 4-3, to score Tate Walerius, who first got on base with a triple off a fly ball to deep left field.

“Tate came through with that big triple, and Isaac came through with his big hit,” Buysse said. “That was huge.”

The one-run lead was enough to hold onto, as Minneota closed out Dawson the rest of the way.

Minneota currently sits at the top of the league standings with a 7-2 record, just ahead of Cottonwood’s 6-3 league record. The loss marks four straight for the Drakes.

Pitching-wise for Minneota, AJ Myhre threw the first four innings with four strikeouts while allowing four walks, two earned runs and six hits. Brody Larson stepped in as relief for three frames, tossing a trio of strikeouts with six walks and two hits.

Ryan Dalager pitched the final two, and finished with three strikeouts and one walk with no hits to earn the save.

“AJ struggled through strikes early, but got out of a lot of jams. Brody did a good job of getting us to the back half,” Buysse said. “We knew Ryan could throw two innings and still be ready to go for Sunday, our next game, so we were kind of planning on that.”

For Dawson, Blake Thompson tossed a majority of the game with 6 2/3 innings for seven strikeouts while allowing two walks, nine hits and three earned runs.

Braxton Thompson relieved for the final 1 1/3 innings, and threw one strikeout with no walks and one hit.

Overall, Minneota finished with nine hits and one error, to Dawson’s eight hits and four errors.

The Drakes were quick to get on the board in its first at-bat off an Derek Gritmacker RBI double off a fly ball to deep left field, which scored Kameron Sather from second base.

Sather initially walked to get on base, and stole second.

Yet, the Mudhens pair of runs in the bottom of the frame came from Peyton Gillund and AJ Myhre off a Walerius sacrifice fly and Dalager pop fly to right field, respectively.

Although Minneota took a 2-1 edge, Dawson immediately tied it up with a run in the second inning. A Sather sacrifice fly to center field allowed Eli Olson enough time to tag up at third and charge home.

Olson originally hit a single line drive to left field, and proceeded to steal second off a passed ball.

Another run in the third gave the Drakes their 3-2 advantage, with another sacrifice fly from Gritmacker to help Blake Thompson take home.

Blake reached base with a single, and stole second and third on the same Minneota pick-off attempt error to get in scoring position.

Minneota’s defense helped keep Dawson scoreless over the next three innings, despite the Drakes getting bases loaded in the fourth, fifth and sixth inning.

“Obviously, at times we weren’t great, but we got out of a lot of jams, which was huge,” Buysse said of Minneota’s defense. “They [Dawson] had a couple times bases loaded, and we got out of it … Probably not our cleanest game defensively, but we’ll work on that, and hopefully it gets better before playoffs.”

In the fourth with bases occupied and two outs, Dalager caught a foul ball outside the first base line to prevent any runs. In the fifth with one out, Jack Lacek caught an infield pop fly and second base while Brody Larson tossed a final strikeout.

Following in the sixth with Drakes on all bases once again with two outs, Buysse fielded a ground ball near short stop and threw the force out at second.

Eight different Drakes recorded a hit on the night, while Gritmacker led with two RBIs.

For the Mudhens offensively, Buysse and Pohlen shared a team-high two hits apiece.

Dawson (2-7) will next return home to host the Hancock Orphans for its final regular season home game on Friday at 8 p.m.

Minneota (8-2) will next host the Dumont Saints on Sunday at 2 p.m. for its final home game of the season.

“It’s crazy to believe it’s already the last home game, but it’s a big one,” Buysse said. “Dumont and us both have two losses, so it’s a big one for region seeding. They’re a good team, and we battled with them the last couple years a lot of times … It’ll be fun, and it’ll be a good game.”

BOX SCORE

MINNEOTA

Batting

P. Gillund: 0-3, BB; I. Myhre: 1-1; A. Buysse: 2-4, RBI, BB; A. Myhre: 1-4 (2B); R. Dalager: 1-3, RBI; T. Walerius: 1-4 (3B); I. Pohlen: 2-4, RBI; A. Dalger: 1-4.

Pitching

A. Myhre: 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 SO; B. Larson: W, 3 IP, 2 H, 6 BB, 3 SO; R. Dalager: S, 2 IP, BB, 3 SO.

DAWSON

Batting

K. Sather: 1-4, RBI, 2 BB, SB; Brad. Thompson: 1-5 (2B), BB; Bl. Thompson: 0-4, BB; D. Gritmacker: 1-4 (2B), 2 RBI, BB; G. Olson: 1-3, 2 BB; Brax. Thompson: 1-4, BB; B. Johnson: 1-4, BB.

Pitching

Bl. Thompson: L, 6.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO; Brax. Thompson: 1.1 IP, H, SO.