The Starbuck Jr. Legion (age 16 and under) opened up the North Central Sub-State playoffs with a split of games last week at home.  Starbuck, which was seeded second after finishing the league schedule with a 9-3 record, routed Long Prairie in the playoff opener last Tuesday and Wednesday, 10-0, before falling at home to Spicer, Friday night, 6-0.

Starbuck, which is 10-7 overall, is now falls into the consolation bracket where it will take five-straight wins to earn the title and a state berth.

Starbuck is set to play Holdingford at 6 p.m., Tuesday, July 25 at Watkins and the winner would need to win two more games Friday, July 28 at Watkins before the championship game(s) at 11 a.m. (and possibly 1 p.m.), Saturday, July 29 at Watkins.

Morris and Spicer will play in the upper-bracket finals, while USA and EV-Watkins are also still alive in the tourney.  The winner of the North Central, Sub-State playoff advances to the state tourney, set for Aug. 3-6 at Granite Falls.

•  Members of the Starbuck Jr. Legion, coached by Chris Lence, Andy Goracke and Paul Johnson, are Connor Frey, Marc Gruber, Riley Dell, Ben Johnson, Tate Anderson, Braylen Scharmer, Levi Johnson, Connor Erickson, Jackson Holmes, Ethan Jacobs, Tyson Metz, Aron Majerus, Oliver VanDerHagen, Noah Jensen, Caden Larsen, Luke Danielson, Evan Friese and AJ Svec.

Starbuck 10, Long Pr 0

The Starbuck Jr. Legion moved one step closer to a state berth with a 10-0 victory over Long Prairie last Wednesday at home.  The game actually started last Tuesday, but was halted in the second inning because of rain and lightning and completed the following night.

Starbuck took an early 2-0 lead after one inning before rain stopped play and once things got going again, the Starbuck bats stayed hot with four runs in the third, three in the fourth and one more in the fifth with one out to stop the game due to the 10-run rule.

Overall, Starbuck was 10-for-22 at the plate with seven walks or hit-by-pitch.  Luke Danielson led the way, going 2-for-3 with four RBI, a stolen base and double, while Marc Gruber was 2-for-3 with two runs, a double, walk and RBI, and Connor Frey was 2-for-2 with a walk and RBI.

Gruber also earned the victory, pitching the first 4 1/3 innings and giving up just three hits with five strikeouts before giving way to Jackson Holmes, who pitched the final two-thirds of an inning.

Also coming through with hits for Starbuck were Levi Johnson, Connor Erickson, Noah Jensen and Jackson Holmes, while Riley Dell scored twice and walked twice.

Spicer 6, Starbuck 0

Spicer’s Brayden Skindelien pitched a three-hit shutout to lead Spicer to a 6-0 win over Starbuck in a game played at Marthaler Field, Friday night.

The game was scoreless through five innings before Spicer finally broke through with five runs in the top-half of the sixth.  Spicer added one more run in the seventh.

Starbuck managed just three hits for the game; one each by Levi Johnson, Marc Gruber and Connor Erickson.

Connor Frey was credited with the loss, giving up five hits, five runs and three walks over six innings with three strikeouts.  Ethan Jacobs pitched the seventh inning, giving up two hits and one more run.

at Starbuck 10, Long Pr 0

Long Prairie 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 2

Starbuck (10-6) 2 0 4 3 1 — 10 10 3

HITTING:  STAR-Marc Gruber 2-for-3, 2 runs, RBI, double, bb; Connor Frey 2-for-2, RBI, bb; Luke Danielson 2-for-3, 4 RBI, double, sb; Levi Johnson 1-for-3, 2 runs, bb, 2 sb; Connor Erickson 1-for-3, 1 run, RBI, hbp; Noah Jensen 1-for-1, 2 runs, RBI, bb, sacfly; Jackson Holmes 1-for-3, 1 run; Riley Dell 0-for-1, 2 runs, RBI, 2 bb, sb  . . . LP-J. Bottello 2-for-3; T. Warmer 2-for-2, sb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-Marc Gruber (W)  4 1/3-3-0-0-0-5; Jackson Holmes 2/3-1-0-0-0-0 . . . LP-UA (L) 1-2-2-0-1-1; C. Fredricks 3-8-8-5-5-4

——————————————————-

Spicer 6, at Starbuck 0

Spicer 0 0 0 0 0 5 1 — 6 7 1

Starbuck (10-7) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 3 0

HITTING:  STAR-Levi Johnson 1-for-3; Marc Gruber 1-for-4; Connor Erickson 1-for-3; Luke Danielson 0-for-2, bb; Jackson Holmes 0-for-2, bb  . . . NLS-Logan Swenson 2-for-3, 1 run, 2 RBI, double, hbp, 2 sb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STAR-Connor Frey (L)  6-5-5-5-3-3; Ethan Jacobs 1-2-1-1-1-1 . . . NLS-Brayden Skindelien (W)  7-3-0-0-3-11

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