Squandered opportunities mark Elrosa's loss against Lake Henry

Austin Imdieke leads off of first base tonight after drawing a walk in the 5th inning.

While both teams had their fair share of base runners and runners stranded through all nine innings, Elrosa definitely had their chances at pushing across game-winning runs when everything was on the line. For the record, both teams committed one fielding error in the game. Regardless, this was another extremely entertaining and well-played game. Kudos to Lake Henry for coming out on top in a battle of Stearns County League heavyweights.

Paid attendance at Region 15C through tonight's game stands at 2,580. This is far and away the most popular, well-attended region amateur baseball tournament in Minnesota. A whopping 371 fans turned out tonight for a game where both sets of fans know they are heading to state.

Elrosa next plays at 11:00am on Sunday in Farming in a loser's bracket final against whoever comes out of Saturday's action.

Here's my Sauk Centre Herald photo album from the game...not many here, as shooting at night on a baseball diamond is about as challenging as it gets for a photographer:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/2013SPORTS/Baseball/Clash-of-the-Titans-Lake-Henry/31104666_pDfqZm

Three elimination games will be played on Saturday in Farming, beginning with Spring Hill and New Munich at 11:00am. Richmond and New London-Spicer square off after that, and the winners of each game play at about 4:00pm for a shot at beating Elrosa in Sunday's first game.

In case you're wondering about the state tournament, I just found out that Elrosa will play in Delano at Municipal Stadium in Central Park to start out in the field of 48. Which day it begins is to be determined with the final seeding of the Region 15C state qualifiers. The Region 15C champion gets a first-round bye and opens state on August 25 in Delano.

See the full schedule here: http://www.mnbaseball.org/League/ClassC/News/996

Fun fact: Delano was one of the first cities in Minnesota to have stadium lights in their main ball park...that happened in 1948.

Just trying this out to see if the Bel-Fest 125th schedule is readable:

Click to enlarge this graphic.