The Starbuck Stars earned a berth in the upcoming Region Tourney with a 5-1 win over Norway Lake-Sunburg, Friday night at Marthaler Field on the Minnewaska Area High School campus.

Starbuck fell to Paynesville in a back-and-forth game two days later, 11-10, but the Stars will go into this weekend’s Region 4C Tourney as the No. 3 seed from the County Line League and will play at 12:30 p.m., Saturday against Raymond at Willmar.

Paynesville moved on to face Atwater for the CLL Tournament title, while NL-Sunburg still has a chance to join the region tourney, but will need to beat the fifth place team from the Corn Belt League to join the top three teams from the CLL and top four teams from the Corn Belt to form the 8-team Region 4C Tourney, set to begin next weekend and conclude Aug. 9-11.

Stars 5, NL-Sunburg 1

Austin Ver Steeg pitched seven innings of two-hit ball and also went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, while Aaron Ver Steeg had a two-run homer and Mitch Gruber went 2-for-3 with two RBI to lead the Stars to a 5-1 win over Norway Lake-Sunburg, Friday night.

Austin Ver Steeg pitched seven innings, giving up two hits and one run with eight strikeouts and Matt Gruber pitched two innings of scoreless relief.

Offensively, the Stars went up 3-0 through four innings and that’s the way it stood through six before the NL-Sunburg scored its only run in the seventh to cut the Stars’ lead to 3-1.

Starbuck added two more runs in the eighth and that was more than enough for the Stars’ pitching staff.

The Stars also got hits from Austin Friese, Noah Jensen, Jackson Hendrickson, Dylan Alexander and PJ Johnson as the Stars outhit the Lakers 11-3.

Paynesville 11, Stars 10

Paynesville scored a run with two outs in the bottom-half of the ninth to earn an 11-10 walk-off victory over the Starbuck Stars during a game played at Paynesville, Sunday afternoon.

Starbuck led 2-0 after a half-inning and 6-4 after 4 1/2 innings, but Paynesville kept coming back, scoring three in the seventh to tie up the game at 8-8 and two more in the eighth to go up 10-8.

Starbuck scored two runs in the top-half of the ninth to tie it up again at 10-10, but Paynesville scored the winning run with two outs to earn a berth in the title game.

Aaron Ver Steeg went 3-for-4 with three runs, four RBI, a walk and homerun to lead the Stars, while Mitch Gruber was 2-for-5 with two RBI and a double and six other players had one hit each.

Paynesville outhit the Stars 16-11 and left only six runners on base compared to seven for Starbuck.

Darion Alexander pitched the first seven innings, leaving with the score 8-8, and Colin Richard pitched the eighth inning before Gruber came in to pitch the ninth and was credited with the loss.

Alexander, Matt Gruber, Austin Ver Steeg, Austin Friese, Jackson Hendrickson and Drew Olsonawski also had hits for the Stars.

at Stars 5, NL-Sunburg 1 

NL-Sun 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 1 3 2

Stars (10-9) 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 x — 5 11 1

HITTING:  STARS-Austin Ver Steeg 3-for-4, run, double; Mitch Gruber 2-for-3, 2 RBI; Aaron Ver Steeg 1-for-3, run, 2 RBI, bb, HR; Austin Friese 1-for-2, run; Jackson Hendrickson 1-for-3; Noah Jensen 1-for-1, hbp; Dylan Alexander 1-for-3, 2 runs, bb, sb; PJ Johnson 1-for-4, RBI  . . . NL-SUN-three with one hit each

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-Austin Ver Steeg (W, 5-2)  7-2-1-1-2-8; Matt Gruber 2-1-0-0-0-0  NL-SUN-Ruter (L)  2-4-2-2-0-1; Johnson 2-3-1-0-0-0; Gjerde 4-4-2-2-2-3

——————————————————-

at Paynesville 11, Stars 10

Stars (10-10) 2 0 0 0 4 0 2 0 2 — 10 11 2

Paynesville 3 0 0 1 0 1 3 2 1 — 11 16 1

HITTING:  STARS-Aaron Ver Steeg 3-for-4, 3 runs, 4 RBI, bb, HR; Mitch Gruber 2-for-5, 2 RBI, double; Darion Alexander 1-for-4, 2 runs, bb; Matt Gruber 1-for-4, 2 runs, bb; Austin Ver Steeg 1-for-4, run, RBI, double; Austin Friese 1-for-3, run, RBI, bb, sac fly, sb; Jackson Hendrickson 1-for-4, RBI, hbp; Drew Olsonawski 1-for-3, run, double, sb  . . . PAYNES-L. Johnson 3-for-5, 2 runs, 4 RBI, HR; S. Orhlien 3-for-4, run, bb, sb; three others with two hits each

PITCHING:  STARS-Darion Alexander 7-14-8-5-1-3; Colin Richards 1-2-2-2-0-1; Mitch Gruber (L, 0-1) 2/3-0-1-0-3-1 . . .   PAY-Fuchs 5-5-6-6-4-10; Orhlien 3-5-4-4-1-1; Johnson (L)  1-1-0-0-0-0

Check out more photos in our photo gallery!