During Mark Juberian's three years as head coach of the Park Rapids baseball team, the Panthers had compiled a 49-16 record entering Monday's Section 8AA playoff game at Perham.
During that span, Perham had an 8-1 record in nine meetings with the Panthers, including a 4-0 win in the 2005 playoffs and a 15-5 victory in last year's playoffs. The Yellow-jackets also defeated Park Rapids 4-0 and 10-6 in 10 innings during the regular season this spring.
Perham was also the favorite to win the section title this year. Not only did the Yellowjackets enter as the No. 2-ranked team in the Class AA ranks with a 17-1 record, but starting pitcher Philip Moenkedick was nearly untouchable this season, sporting a 6-0 record and 0.58 ERA. Moenkedick, who threw a two-hitter in Perham's 4-0 win over the Panthers this season, had allowed only 14 hits all season in 36 innings of work.
That recent history didn't phase the Panthers in the section quarterfinals as home runs by Tom Juberian and Chris Bruhn sparked Park Rapids to a 5-3 win at Perham and a spot in the section semifinals.
"That win was huge," said Mark Juberian, whose team improved to 18-4 on the season and holds the No. 7 ranking in the state. "You have to feel good for the kids. They finally got the monkey off their backs."
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Tom Juberian set the tone for the game with a solo home run to right-centerfield with one out in the first inning. That was Juberian's team-leading seventh home run of the season. Grant Dierkhising followed with a triple and Zach Lehrke lined an RBI single. After a two-out walk to Kyle Blanchard, Eli Donatelle lined an RBI single to give the Panthers a quick 3-0 lead.
The Panthers increased that margin to 5-0 in the third when Lehrke singled with one out and scored on Bruhn's blast to left field. That was Bruhn's first home run of the season.
Bruhn took care of the rest despite allowing solo homers to Isaac Stoll in the fourth and Dylan Ander-son in the fifth. An error led to Perham's final run in the sixth.
Donatelle doubled in the third, Doug Haas led off with a double in the fourth and Curtis Tolle singled in the sixth to round out the Panthers' nine-hit attack.
Bruhn went the distance, allowing two earned runs on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. The win gave Bruhn a 6-1 record and 1.66 ERA on the season.
The Panthers carried an 18-4 record into the section semifinal game against Bagley at Hawley. That game was postponed Thursday because of rain and rescheduled for Friday morning. The section title game followed Friday afternoon with the winner advancing to the state Class AA tournament, which begins Thursday at St. Cloud.
Park Rapids 302 000 0......5 9 2
Perham 000 111 0......3 6 0
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PLAYER AB R H RBI
Tolle 3 0 1 0
Juberian 3 1 1 1
Dierkhising 4 1 1 0
Lehrke 3 2 2 1
Bruhn 3 1 1 2
Peterson 0 0 0 0
Walsh 0 0 0 0
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Blanchard 2 0 0 0
Donatelle 3 0 2 1
Gartner 3 0 0 0
Haas 3 0 1 0
Totals 27 5 9 5
Bruhn (7IP, 3R, 2ER, 6H, 7K, 1BB) and Lehrke; Moenkedick, Stoll (5) and Kratzke. W-Bruhn, 6-1. L-Moenkedick, 6-1. 2B: Donatelle 1, Haas 1. HR: Juberian 1, Bruhn 1. SB: Lehrke 1, Peterson 1.
