Despite making seven errors and giving up six unearned runs, the Park Rapids baseball team managed to post a Mid-State Conference doubleheader sweep at Staples Tuesday to stay in the chase to win the conference title.
The Panthers scored three times in the seventh inning and held off a late Staples-Motley rally for a 4-3 win in the first game.
In the second game, the Panthers used a seven-run third inning to spark a 9-6 win to complete the sweep and improve to 7-1 in the conference.
Perham swept a doubleheader from Detroit Lakes to improve to 10-0 in the conference. Detroit Lakes carried a 4-2 record against Mid-State opponents into Thursday's doubleheader at Park Rapids.
In the first game, the Panthers broke a scoreless tie in the fifth on singles by Eli Donatelle and Kyle Blanchard.
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In the seventh, the Pan-thers used an error, Dona-telle's RBI double, Blan-chard's sacrifice fly, Bran-don Gartner's RBI single and stolen base, a balk and a wild pitch to take a 4-0 lead.
The Cardinals rallied in the bottom of the inning as three errors led to three runs. But Grant Dierkhising recorded his eighth strikeout of the game to leave the bases loaded and preserve the win.
Dierkhising improved to 3-0 on the season with a complete-game five-hitter. Donatelle led the offense by going 3 for 3 and scoring twice.
Park Rapids completed the sweep by sending 12 batters to the plate in the third inning of the second game.
Blanchard led off that seven-run inning with a single and Curtis Tolle walked with one out. After a single by Zach Lehrke, Dierkhising's two-run single, a double by Tom Juberian, a two-run double by Chris Bruhn, an RBI single by Donatelle and an error on Dylan Walsh's bunt gave the Panthers a 7-1 lead.
In the fifth, Donatelle doubled with one out and scored on Walsh's sacrifice fly for an 8-3 edge.
The Panthers added an insurance run in the seventh when Juberian led off with a single and scored on Donatelle's sacrifice fly.
Gartner improved to 3-0 on the season by allowing five runs on three hits and six walks over the first six innings. He struck out six.
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Offensively, Lehrke, Dierkhising and Juberian went 2 for 4 while Donatelle went 2 for 3 as the Panthers improved to 11-1 on the season with their sixth straight win.
(Game 1)
Park Rapids 000 010 3......4 6 4
Staples 000 000 3......3 5 1
PLAYER AB R H RBI
Haas 3 0 0 0
Peterson 1 0 0 0
Tolle 4 0 0 0
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Vaadeland 0 0 0 0
Bruhn 3 0 0 0
Juberian 3 0 0 0
Lehrke 3 0 0 0
Dierkhising 3 1 1 0
Donatelle 3 2 3 1
Walsh 0 0 0 0
Blanchard 1 0 1 2
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Gartner 2 1 1 0
Totals 26 4 6 3
Dierkhising (7IP, 3R, 1ER, 5H, 8K, 4BB) and Lehrke; Roline and Ness. W-Dierkhising, 3-0. L-Roline. 2B: Donatelle 1. SB: Gartner 1.
(Game 2)
Park Rapids 007 010 1.....9 10 3
Staples 100 201 2.....6 4 0
PLAYER AB R H RBI
Tolle 2 1 0 0
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Lehrke 4 1 2 0
Dierkhising 4 1 2 2
Juberian 4 2 2 0
Bruhn 2 1 1 2
Olson 1 0 0 0
Donatelle 3 2 2 2
Walsh 1 0 0 1
Haas 1 0 0 0
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Gartner 0 0 0 0
Blanchard 3 1 1 0
Peterson 1 0 0 0
Vaadeland 1 0 0 0
Totals 27 9 10 7
Gartner (6IP, 5R, 2ER, 3H, 6K, 6BB, 2HBP), Bruhn (1IP, 1R, 0ER, 1H, 3K, 0BB) and Tolle; Thompson and Ness. W-Gartner, 3-0. L-Thompson. 2B: Dierkhising 1, Juberian 1, Bruhn 1, Donatelle 1. SB: Walsh 1.
