Park Rapids' loss to Wheaton in the first round of the 11th annual Park Rapids Invitational baseball tournament proved costly in more ways than one.
Wheaton scored three runs in the seventh inning to rally for a 3-2 victory Friday night. In that inning, right fielder Nick Stenberg suffered a compound fracture of his left leg in a collision while chasing a fly ball. Stenberg is out for the season.
Wheaton used that victory to win the tournament title in this annual eight-team event, defeating Crookston 11-3 in Saturday's semifinals and Menahga 8-3 in Saturday's championship game.
The Panthers rebounded from that loss with two impressive wins on Saturday, defeating Nevis 21-2 in five innings and Perham 8-2 to win the consolation title. Park Rapids improved to 4-1 with those two wins.
Wheaton rallies for win
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The Panthers were in control against Wheaton until the seventh inning.
Zach Lehrke walked and scored on Jed Ryan's RBI single in the second and Chris Bruhn singled, stole second and scored on Kyle Blanchard's RBI single in the sixth as the Panthers built a 2-0 lead.
Wheaton, which was limited to two hits by Bruhn over the first four innings and one hit by Brandon Gartner over the next two innings, capitalized on four errors in the seventh to score the winning runs.
Wheaton 000 000 3 .....3 4 2
Park Rapids 010 001 0 .....2 7 5
PLAYER AB R H RBI
Haas 4 0 1 0
Juberian 4 0 0 0
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Stenberg 3 0 2 0
Burlingame 1 0 0 0
Dierkhising 3 0 0 0
Lehrke 2 1 0 1
Bruhn 2 1 1 0
Blanchard 2 0 1 1
E. Donatelle 0 0 0 0
Ryan 3 0 1 1
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Gartner 3 0 1 0
Totals 27 2 7 2
Bruhn (4IP, 0R, 2H, 5BB, 3K, 1HBP), Gartner (3IP, 3R, 0ER, 2H, 1BB, 2K) and Lehrke. W-Sykora. L-Gartner, 0-1. 2B: Stenberg 1. SB: Stenberg 1, Bruhn 1, Gartner 1.
Panthers roll past Tigers
The Panthers belted out 19 hits to back a combined three-hitter by Ryan and Eli Donatelle to defeat Nevis.
Doubles by Bruhn and Ryan sparked a four-run first inning before doubles by Tom Juberian and Lehrke and Bruhn's two-run single sparked a four-run second inning.
Singles by Jake Hanson, Doug Haas, Grant Dierkhising and Blanchard and a two-run double by Ryan led to five runs in the third. The Panthers scored four more times in the fourth on singles by Gartner and Hanson, a two-run single by Lehrke and an RBI single by Bruhn.
Park Rapids ended this game via the 10-run rule with a four-run fifth. Donatelle's double and three errors sparked that inning.
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Lehrke and Bruhn each went 3 for 5 and combined for seven RBI to lead the Panthers. Haas, Dierkhising, Ryan and Hanson also went 2 for 3 and Blanchard went 2 for 5 to lead the Panthers' offensive attack.
Jake Darchuk and Jordan Larson scored on Chris Phillips' double in the first to account for Nevis' two runs.
Park Rapids 445 44 ....2119 1
Nevis 200 00 .....2 3 6
PLAYER AB R H RBI
Haas 3 2 2 0
Boterman 1 1 0 0
Juberian 4 3 1 0
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Lehrke 5 3 3 3
Dierkhising 3 3 2 1
Bruhn 5 2 3 4
Blanchard 5 1 2 0
Ryan 3 0 2 3
E. Donatelle 1 1 1 0
Gartner 3 2 1 0
Hanson 3 2 2 0
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Burlingame 1 1 0 0
Totals 37 21 19 11
Ryan (3IP, 2R, 1ER, 3H, 0BB, 8K), E. Donatelle (2IP, 0R, 0H, 0BB, 1K) and Bruhn. W-Ryan, 1-0. L-Rice. 2B: Juberian 1, Bruhn 1, Ryan 2, E. Donatelle 1. SB: Haas 1, Dierkhising 2, Ryan 1, Gartner 2, Hanson 1).
Panthers get consolation
Gartner and Lehrke combined on a seven-hitter and the Panthers took advantage of their six hits to defeat Perham in the fifth-place game.
Bruhn's two-run single gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead in the first and Lehrke's two-run single made it 4-1 in the second.
A three-run fourth inning sealed the win. Haas, Juberian and Lehrke all walked and scored as the Panthers led 7-2. Lehrke's sacrifice fly scored Cody Boterman with the final run in the fifth.
Gartner gave up five hits and two unearned runs over four innings for the win.
Perham 100 100 0 .....2 7 1
Park Rapids 220 310 x .....8 6 0
PLAYER AB R H RBI
Haas 2 2 1 0
Juberian 2 2 1 0
Lehrke 2 1 1 3
Dierkhising 2 1 0 0
Blanchard 3 0 0 0
Bruhn 2 0 2 2
Burlingame 1 0 0 0
Gartner 1 0 0 0
Hanson 1 0 0 0
Ryan 3 0 0 0
E. Doantelle 1 0 0 0
Boterman 2 2 1 0
Totals 22 8 6 5
Gartner (4IP, 2ER, 5H, 0BB, 0K), Lehrke (3IP, 0R, 2H, 1BB, 1K) and Lehrke, Bruhn (5). W-Gartner, 1-1. L-Stoll. SB: Haas 1, Lehrke 1, Bruhn 2, Gartner 1.
