The Starbuck Stars amateur baseball team is down to its final three games.  The Stars are having a great season with an 8-7 overall record and 7-2 mark in the County Line League.

During last week’s action, the Stars fell to Raymond, Wednesday at home, 10-2.  The Stars were also set to play at Elrosa (eventually canceled), Friday night, and at New London-Spicer (4-1 victory), Sunday afternoon, but results of those two games will be highlighted next week.

After those two games, the only game left on the schedule is the final County Line League game set for Sunday, July 7 at Regal, which is also 7-2 in the County Line League and will be for the County Line title.

The County Line League playoffs are set to begin July 13-14 and continue July 20-21 and July 27-28.  

In the results that follow is also information about the Stars’ 8-1 win over Norway Lake-Sunburg from Friday, June 21 at home.

Besides Regal and Starbuck, other County Line teams are Paynesville (5-3), Atwater (5-3), NLS (2-7) and NL-Sunburg (0-9).

Stars 8, NL-Sunburg 1

The Stars scored seven runs in the eighth inning, three of which came on a three-run homer by Austin Friese, to turn a 1-1 game into an 8-1 victory over Norway Lake-Sunburg last Friday night at home.

The Stars trailed 1-0 through five innings before tying it up with a run in the sixth. Two innings later, the Stars were able to score seven more runs off NL-Sunburg pitcher Justin Johnson to improve to 6-2 for the season in the County Line League.

Friese went 2-for-4 with a run, a homer and three RBI, while Mitch Gruber was 2-for-4 with a run and RBI to lead the Starbuck offense.

Aaron Ver Steeg and Jackson Hendrickson both went 1-for-4 with a run and two RBI, while Mike Andreas had a double and scored a run, and Darion Alexander and Matt Gruber also had hits for the Stars with Gruber scoring twice and Alexander also adding a sacrifice.

Alexander started on the mound for the Stars, but left after five innings with the score 1-0.  Austin VerSteeg was credited with the victory, pitching the final four innings and allowing just one walk while striking out four.

Raymond 10, Stars 2

The Stars lost a non-league game at home against Raymond last Wednesday as the Rockets had two big innings on the way to the 10-2 win.

Raymond, which had four players combine for eight hits, six runs and seven RBI, scored five runs in the second inning and four more in the fifth while the Stars scored their only two runs in the second on RBI hits by Mitch Gruber and Jackson Hendrickson which plated Aaron Ver Steeg and Blake Andreas.

PJ Johnson, the first of four Starbuck pitchers, took the loss after yielding five runs on six hits in the second inning.

Gruber went 4-for-4 with an RBI and double to lead the Stars, while Aaron Ver Steeg, Hendrickson and Nick Lavasseur also had hits for Starbuck.

at Stars 8, NL-Sunburg 1 

NL-Sunburg 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 5 3

Stars (7-5) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 x — 8 9 1

HITTING:  STARS-Mitch Gruber 2-for-4, run, RBI; Austin Friese 2-for-4, run, 3 RBI, HR; Matt Gruber 1-for-5, 2 runs; Darion Alexander 1-for-3, sac; Aaron Ver Steeg 1-for-4, run, 2 RBI, sb; Jackson Hendrickson 1-for-4, run, 2 RBI; Mike Andreas 1-for-4, run, double   . . . NL-SUN-L. Ruter 2-for-4

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-Darion Alexander 5-5-1-1-2-5; Austin Ver Steeg (W, 3-2)  4-0-0-0-1-4 . . . NL-SUN-Justin Johnson (L)  7 1/3-9-8-7-1-8; L. Ruter 2/3-0-0-0-0-2

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Raymond 10, at Stars 2

Raymond 0 5 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 — 10 13 1

Stars (7-7) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 — 2 7 6

HITTING:  STARS-Mitch Gruber 4-for-4, RBI, double; Aaron Ver Steeg 1-for-4, run, double; Jackson Hendrickson 1-for-4, RBI; Nick Lavasseur 1-for-4; Blake Andreas 0-for-2, hbp, run   . . . RAY-T. Steen 2-for-4, run, 2 bb; C. Ditmerson 2-or-6, 3 RBI, double; E. Nelson 2-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBI; B. Swanson 2-for-4, 3 runs, RBI, bb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-PJ Johnson (L, 0-1)  2-6-5-5-2-3; Luke Lavasseur 4-5-4-4-2-2; Mitch Gruber 1-1-1-0-0-2; Blake Andreas 2-1-0-0-3-2 . . . RAY-H. Salaman (W)  9-7-2-2-0-11

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