WILLMAR — The Ridgewater College baseball team came into its four-game series with Alexandria Technical & Community College knowing it already was in the Region 13 tournament.
Friday’s doubleheader with the Legends was mostly for pride with the possibility of a No. 2 seed in the regional.
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Joe Brown / West Central Tribune
Alex, meanwhile, is playing for its playoff life. The Legends need to win 3 of 4 from the Warriors to advance.
Friday at sunny and mild Elsie Klemmetson Field, they played to a draw.
Alex won Game 1, 6-3 in eight innings. Ridgewater scored three in the bottom of the fifth to win Game 2, 3-2.
Joe Brown / West Central Tribune
The teams conclude the series beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday at Alexandria’s Knute Nelson Field.
“It’s a long shot, but we still have a chance to win the conference,” said head coach Tyler Hebrink. “But we’d need some help from Central Lakes College (which plays St. Cloud Technical & Community College this weekend).”
Ridgewater is 14-4 in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference and 17-13 overall. Alexandria is 11-7 in the MCAC and 23-13 overall and coached by former Lac qui Parle Valley star Brandon Hill.
Joe Brown / West Central Tribune
The teams played two entertaining games Friday. In Game 2, Dominic Rose got the complete-game victory, striking out four, walking one and scattering eight hits. He’s a freshman right-hander from Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop.
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“He did an outstanding job,” Hebrink said.
Max Athmann, the sophomore shortstop from Payneville, went 2-for-2 with a double, a run and a walk for the Warriors.
Connor Davis was 3-for-4 with a triple, a run and an RBI for Alex Tech.
In Game 1, the Warriors’ Andrew Prieve went 3-for-3 with a triple, a run, two RBIs and two stolen bases. He’s Ridgewater’s No. 3 hitter and a sophomore from Hutchinson. Athmann went 2-for-2 with a double, a walk and a run.
Davis, a sophomore from Wadena-Deer Creek, went 2-for-5 with a triple, a run and four RBIs. Cooper Dack, a freshman from Montevideo, went 1-for-2 with a run, a walk and a stolen base in Game 2 for the Legends. In Game 1, the Alex Tech second baseman was hit by a pitch, stole a base and also scored a run.
Hebrink is excited about his team’s prospects in the regional, which begins Friday, May 9 in St. Cloud.
“This is a fantastic group of guys,” Hebrink said. “They compete their butts off and tonight, they’ll all be together hanging out.”
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