Austin Ver Steeg and Darion Alexander combined for a five-hit shutout over NLS, Friday night, keeping the playoff hopes alive for the Starbuck Stars amateur baseball team in the County Line League playoffs.

The Stars, who lost an extra-inning game to Atwater to open up the playoffs the previous weekend, improved to 9-9 overall with their latest win.

Starbuck now is set to host Norway Lake-Sunburg at 7:30 p.m., Friday in the next round.  NL-Sunburg upset top-seeded Regal in another game last weekend, eliminating the top seed.  Atwater and Paynesville met in the upper-bracket finals.  

If Starbuck wins Friday, it would play Paynesville on Sunday in Atwater, but if it loses, it would play Wednesday, July 31 in a play-in game for the region tourney.

The top three teams are guaranteed a spot in the region playoffs while the fourth-place team will meet the fifth-place team from the Corn Belt League to round out the 8-team region bracket.

The County Line League playoffs conclude this weekend, while the Region Tourney is set for Aug. 2-4 and Aug. 9-11. 

Stars 3, NLS 0

Starbuck scored two in the second and one more in the fourth while Austin Ver Steeg earned the pitching victory after striking out eight over the first six innings.

Darion Alexander went 2-for-4 with a double and stolen base to lead the Stars’ offense and he also pitched the final three innings to earn the save, giving up four hits while striking out three.

Matt Gruber, Ver Steeg, Austin Friese, PJ Johnson and Aaron Ver Steeg also had hits for the Stars, while Jackson Hendrickson was 0-for-1 with a run, walk and hit-by-pitch.

Coming through with RBI for the Stars were Friese, Mitch Gruber and Johnson.  NLS had two players with two hits each, but the Twins left eight runners on base.

Starbuck finished second in the league race this year with a 7-3 County Line League mark, one game behind Regal (8-2).

at Stars 3, NLS 0 

NLS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 5 1

Stars (9-9) 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 x — 3 7 0

HITTING:  STARS-Darion Alexander 2-for-4, double, sb; Matt Gruber 1-for-4; Austin Ver Steeg 1-for-3, sb; Aaron Ver Steeg 1-for-4, run, sb; Austin Friese 1-for-3, run, RBI, double; PJ Johnson 1-for-2, RBI, hbp; Jackson Hendrickson 0-for-1, run, bb, hbp  . . . NLS-J. Soinee 2-for-4; S. Rambow 2-for-2, 2 bb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-Austin Ver Steeg (W, 4-2)  6-1-0-0-3-8; Darion Alexander (Sv)  3-4-0-0-0-3  . . . NLS-D. Arndorfer (L)  8-7-3-1-1-4

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