MILROY — Timely hitting helped the No. 2 Milroy Irish avoid dropping game 1 of the second round of the Region 10C tournament on Wednesday. The Irish trailed by a run heading into the bottom of the ninth, but some clutch hits from Derek Smith and Tyler Maeyaert helped the Irish battle back and claim a 2-1 win in 10 innings.

Facing a 1-0 deficit, Smith played the hero for Milroy to close out regulation. The Irish slugger belted a solo home run to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and force extra innings.

The timely hits only continued to come from there. After Milroy shut down the Jackson bats in the top of the 10th, Tyler Maeyaert came up with a walk-off single in the bottom of the frame to seal the 2-1 victory.

Maeyaert put together a quality start on the mound for the Irish, limiting Jackson to one earned run with eight strikeouts over five innings. Craig Lasley closed out the game with five scoreless innings of relief to earn the win.

The Irish improve to 15-8 on the season with the win. Now needing to win just one of the next two games to advance to the championship round, Milroy will go on the road to Wacker Field to take on Jackson on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Should Jackson win, a winner-take-all game 3 will be played at the Irish Yard on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

Windom 8, Hadley 0

WINDOM — The Hadley Buttermakers dropped the first game of their best-of-3 Region 10C semifinal matchup against Windom on Wednesday, falling 8-0 after Luke Gilbertson pitched a complete-game shutout for the Pirates.

Tucker Sorenson was charged with the loss for Hadley, giving up three earned runs on five hits and five walks over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out eight batters before being relieved by Jacob VanDam, who gave up three earned runs on five hits and a walk over 2 1/3 innings.

Windom got on the board with one run in the second and third innings. They added another in the fifth and two more in the sixth before pulling away with a three-run eighth inning.

Southwest Minnesota State University graduate Keenan Wenzel led the Windom bats with a pair of hits for three RBIs while Alex Fink tallied two RBIs on a double and two singles.

Derek Kluis and Alex Peterson each notched a pair of hits for Hadley while Max Zwart hit a double. Austin Irlbeck drew the lone walk for the Buttermakers.

Gilbertson limited Hadley to eight hits and a walk over his nine shutout innings while striking out seven batters. He also came up with three singles at the plate.

Hadley will host Windom for Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. If they win, the Buttermakers will go on the road to take on Windom in the deciding Game 3 on Sunday at 2 p.m.