May 23, 2012

Wolves blast Crusaders to advance to regional semis

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

Powered by a two-run home run by Andrew Sampsel and a solo shot by Mitchell Liebel, the Watford City Wolves baseball team rolled over the Trinity Christian Crusaders, 12-5, on Saturday afternoon in opening round play of the Region Baseball Tournament.
“We played very well in our first Region Tournament game,” stated Justin Johnsrud, Wolves’ head coach. “Lucas Nicholson had a very strong pitching performance, striking out 10 while only walking two.”
Watford City got off to a great start at the plate as the Wolves scored three runs in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 9-1 lead and then coasted to the easy win.
The Wolves out-hit the Crusaders, 18-3, and were able to capitalize on eight errors by Trinity Christian.
“At the plate we had several players with multiple hits for the game,” stated Johnsrud. “Although we stranded a few runners on base, all in all, we hit the ball pretty well. And defensively, we were solid. We made the right decisions when the ball was hit to us.”
With the opening round win, the Wolves will take on Lewis & Clark on Monday afternoon with the chance to move on to the title game on Tuesday.
Johnsrud said, “We play Lewis & Clark Monday at 4 p.m. in Makoti in the semifinals. If we win, we play in the championship Tuesday against DLB or L&C. If we lose, we play DLB right away tonight, and need to win to get into the championship.”
                                                                                            R    H    E
Trinity                                0    0    1    2    2    0    0
       5    3    8
Watford City                    3    3    3    0    1    2    x    12    18    1

WATFORD CITY WEATHER