Royals Post 950 stays alive at VFW State Tournament

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Mankato Royals Post 950 center fielder Devin Ries slides in safely under the tag of Marshall catcher Nolan Schaeffer during a seven-run third inning Friday at Wolverton Field. Pat Christman

August 11, 2012

Royals Post 950 stays alive at VFW State Tournament

By Jim Rueda Free Press Sports Editor The Mankato Free Press Sat Aug 11, 2012, 12:24 AM CDT

MANKATO — Most naysayers will tell you the Mankato Royals Post 950 baseball team back-doored their way into the VFW State Tournament this year.

Mankato didn’t actually qualify through the section tournament but got an automatic berth to state because it is the host team. Regardless of how they got there, the Royals won twice on Friday to become one of just four teams left.

“We may not have played our way into the tournament but I think we’ve showed we belong here,” head coach Ethan Anderson said. “I told the guys before we started playing that we have a very tough regular season schedule and we play teams that are as good as anybody in this tournament.

“We were competitive with most of them all season long. I think they’re starting to believe they deserve to be here.”

The Royals opened the day with an 11-2 win over Marshall. Right-hander Sean Allan did it all for Mankato, smacking three hits, walking once, scoring twice and recording a pair of RBIs. He also threw a complete-game four-hitter.

“I didn’t do anything special,” Allan said of his pitching performance. “I threw mostly fastballs and mixed in a slider once in awhile.

“Once we got the big lead, I just threw it up there and let them hit it. I let the defense take care of the rest.”

Allan walked one batter, struck out two and allowed two earned runs.

Trailing 3-1 after 2 1/2 innings, Mankato’s bats went to work in the third. The Royals capitalized on three errors and smacked six hits to produce a seven-run rally. Jordan Grams, Shane Sellner, Allan, Tyler Hatelstad, Isaac Weber and Tyler Stoffel each had singles during the uprising.

Mankato put the game away with a three-run sixth. Pat Rohlfing bounced a two-run single to left and Hatelstad lined an RBI single to right to lead the charge.

Allan ended up 3 for 3 while Weber, Stoffel and Hatelstad belted two hits apiece. Sellner, Allan and Rohlfing each drove in a pair of runs.

In their second game, a 7-4 win over Shakopee, the Royals got another strong pitching effort from Josh Cook. He allowed a few more hits (10), but otherwise it was a similar outing to Allan’s. He fanned one, walked three, hit a batter and allowed four earned runs.

“I think I threw pretty well today,” Cook said. “I just tried change speed and mix up the eye level the batters were seeing the ball.”

The Royals, who had 13 hits in the opener, belted 11 more against Shakopee. Stoffel, Grams and Allan finished with two hits each.

Mankato took control early, scoring five times in the bottom of the first and staying on top the whole game. Weber, Stoffel, Grams, Cook, Allan and Rohlfing all had base hits in the opening frame. Sellner added a run-scoring ground out.

“We’re seeing the ball pretty well right now,” Cook said. “I guess we picked a good time to get hot with the bats.”

Mankato (18-16) returns to tournament action today with a 1:30 p.m. game against St. Cloud at Franklin Rogers Park. If the Royals win, they’ll play again at 4 p.m.

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