Cold Spring won the SPAMtown Challenge in Austin last weekend defeating a surprising Owatonna Aces team 4 to 2.  The win brings Cold Spring’s record to 26-2 overall.  Cold Spring won the SPAMtown Challenge in Austin last weekend defeating a surprising Owatonna Aces team 4 to 2.  The win brings Cold Spring’s record to 26-2 overall. The Springers have only lost to Chaska and Minnetonka this season and both of those teams happened to be in the Austin tourney.  Rain on Saturday severely disrupted the tournament and it was rearranged to an eight team single elim on Sunday.  The eight teams all had at least one win in the tourney to move to the Sunday event.  


COLD SPRING SPRINGERS

Cold Spring beat the Austin Greyhounds 7-2 behind Zach Femrite.  Then they beat Chicago 11-9.  Andy Bulson was the winning pitcher against Owatonna.  Owatonna had gained the finals by defeating Blaine 4-1 and pulling off a major upset of the Rochester Royals 4-2.  It was the first time in 15 years that Owatonna had beaten the Royals.  They made the finals by beating Chaska 9-8, scoring six runs in the seventh and last inning.  Earlier in the day, Owatonna beat Jamestown, ND 7-4.  

Andy Bulson was the tourney MVP pitching 14 innings and giving up only one earned run.  Here is the all-tourney team:  Andy Bulson, Kyle Resser and Daren Heying, Cold Spring; Matt Uher and Tate Cummins, Owatonna;  Tony Testin and Dan Higgins, Chicago and Peter Ohnsorg from Chaska.  

In Hinckley, the Hibbing Miners prevailed by beating the hometown Knights 8-2 in the final on Sunday.  Hibbing got to the finals by beating defending tourney champs Elko 1-0.  In that game Ben Sartori got the win and Andy Lyke took the hard-luck loss allowing only two hits.  Then the Miners beat Brownton 4-3 before downing Hinckley.  Hinckley got to the final by beating the Shakopee Coyotes 6-2 and Buffalo 9-4.

HIBBING MINERS

Elko went on to win the Consolation Championship downing Maple Plain 7-1 and Champlin 3-2.  Brownton finished in third place beating Buffalo 10-5.  In Brownton’s first game of the tourney, Dustin Klabunde had a no-hitter with one out in the seventh when he gave up a single.  The game ended two pitches later with a 4-6-3 double-play.

Tourney co-mvp players were Jason Hron from Hibbing who went 5-8 with three rbi and Kevin McFerran from Hinckley who was 5-9 with four rbi and two home runs.

In Cambridge the Bandits ruled.  The Bloomington Bandits beat the St. Croix River Bandits 15-4 in the Championship game.  The Rum River Bandits (tourney host) beat the Rockford River Bandits 6-5 in nine innings with Mike Koplitz getting the two out game winning hit.  The Staples Lumberbats spoiled the party and took fifth over the Ham Lake Freeze.  Earlier Bloomington had beaten Ham Lake 12-10 and Rockford 8-2.  St. Croix beat Staples 9-5 and Rum River 4-1.  


BLOOMINGTON BANDITS

In Cologne they played a three team round robin.  In game one Cologne beat Cleveland 7-3.  Game two saw Cleveland over Carver 6-5 and in the final of the day Carver beat Cologne 15-9.  That meant that all three teams had one and one records.  The tie-breaker was runs allowed and Cleveland only allowed 11 runs to claim the first Hollander Tournament Championship.  Carver was second with 15 and Cologne gave up 18 for third.   

Nimrod played an eight team consolation tourney.  In the first round it was:  Nimrod 8, Bagley 0;  Duluth 10, Moorhead Saints 3;  East Grand Forks 8, Bluffton 0;  Cuyuna 3, Roseau 2.  Second round was: East Grand Forks 8 Duluth 5; Cuyuna 4, Nimrod 3;  Bagley 4, Roseau 2;  and Bluffton 11, Moorhead 4.

Roseau beat Moorhead 14-7 for seventh place.  It was Bluffton 19, Bagley 0 for fifth place, Duluth 11, Nimrod 4 for third and East Grand Forks beat the Cuyuna Range Miners 5-0 in the Championship.  The tourney MVP was Gary Molck form East Grand Forks.  

In South St. Paul, Rosetown beat Commanding Edge 5-1 and then the Commanding Edge came right back and beat Stockmen’s Irish 6-4.  Stockmen’s beat Rosetown 6-1 and played St. Louis Park in the finals.  Park beat Stockmen’s 4-0 for the Championship.  

Victoria won their own tournament beating Lyon’s Pub of Minneapolis 4-3.  Chris Thulin threw a five hit complete game for Victoria.  Erik Wingarden got the game winner in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded.  

That wraps up the invitational tournament schedule for this year.  If you know of any others please let me know.  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it