Photo by Samantha Davis: Milroy outfielder Lucas Dolan attempts to make a catch during a non-league baseball game against Granite Falls on July 20 at the Irish Yard in Milroy. The Irish will take on top-seeded windom in game 1 of the Region 10C championship tonight.

MILROY — After locking up a Class C tournament appearance with a 2-0 sweep over Jackson last week, the Milroy Irish will try to take the top seed out of their region when they take on the Windom Pirates in a best-of-3 series in the Region 10C Championship, starting tonight.

Windom will host the series’ first game tonight at 7:30 p.m. while Milroy will host game 2 at the Irish Yard on Friday at 7:30 p.m. If necessary, a third game will be played in Windom on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Win or lose, both the Irish and the Pirates will be competing for a state title in the Class C tournament. The result of the region championship will be used to determine which team is the No. 1 seed from the region and which team is the No. 2 seed.

Windom has been a dominant team all season long. After starting the season on a six-game win streak, the Pirates lost their lone game of the season to Class B Fairmont, 5-2. Since then, the Pirates have won 15 straight games to sweep their way to the region championship round.

The Irish had a slump to close out June, going 1-5 in the month’s final two weeks. Since then, however, the Irish have been consistently competitive. They’ve won eight of their nine games since the start of July and are riding a seven-game win streak to a 16-8 record entering the region championship.

During their perfect 4-0 tournament run to date, the Irish have been able to win at the plate and on the mound. In its first-round matchup against Lakefield, Milroy rode its bats to 10-0 and 6-3 wins over Lakefield. Against Jackson in the region semifinals, pitching paved the way to 2-1 and 4-3 wins over Jackson.

Tyler Maeyaert has continued to pitch line an ace for the Irish, throwing six shutout innings with nine strikeouts in Milroy’s first postseason win over Lakefield and five innings with just one run allowed in the Irish’s second-round opener against Jackson. Craig Lasley has also been dominant out of the bullpen, with five shutout innings of relief to follow up Maeyaert’s start and secure a win in extra innings over Jackson.

Trevor Smith has also earned a pair of wins from going deep into the game for the Irish this postseason, while Derek Smith has been a consistent closer for the team for some time now.

While the Irish haven’t lost yet this postseason, they’ve had some close calls. In their 2-1 win over Jackson on July 30, Derek Smith hit a tying home run in the bottom of the ninth to force extras and Maeyaert came up with an RBI single in the 10th to secure the walk-off win. A week earlier, Tyler Peterson hit a two-run single in the ninth to force extra innings against Lakefield and came up with an RBI and a run in the 11th to give the Irish a 6-3 win over Lakefield.

Windom hasn’t been as battle-tested in close games. Rather, they’ve blown out nearly everyone they’ve played. Over the course of the Pirates’ eight wins since the start of July, six have seen them shut out their opponent and three have seen the Pirates score double-digit runs. Only one of the games, a 2-0 win over Leavenworth, was decided by fewer than five runs.

In the Pirates’ four postseason games this year, they’ve outscored Fox Lake and Hadley by a combined margin of 34-4.

Luke Gilbertson and Drew Rothenberger have been the aces of the Pirates’ pitching stats, with Gilbertson throwing 56 innings on the year and Rothenberger throwing 42. Rothenberger has put together a 0.21 ERA and a 0.69 WHIP with 61 strikeouts on the season, while Gilbertson has punched out 45 batters with a 1.45 ERA and 0.80 WHIP. Southwest Minnesota State University alum Kobe Lovell also has thrown 13 scoreless innings for the Pirates to maintain a perfect ERA on the season. As a team, Windom has a 0.72 ERA and 0.81 WHIP on the year.

Rothenberger also leads the Pirates at the plate with a .403 batting average, a 1.153 OPS and a pair of home runs on the season. Brett Willaby has also hit for a .993 OPS on the year while former SMSU Mustangs Keenan Wenzel and Jake Tauer have hit .963 and .941, respectively. Wenzel’s 30 RBIs are a team-high, as are Tauer’s four triples.