Will Pickar and Brendan Kruchowski pitched complete games in leading the Park Rapids American Legion baseball team to a doubleheader sweep at Walker on July 5.
Pickar threw a three-hitter as Post 212 won the opener 10-1. Kruchowski followed with another three-hitter as Park Rapids completed the sweep with a 6-2 win in five innings in the second game. Those victories extended Park Rapids' winning streak to seven games in a row as Post 212 improved to 9-3 on the season.
Park Rapids backed Pickar's complete game with a 14-hit attack in the opener.
Chase Brand opened the first inning with a walk, stole second and scored on two passed balls to give Park Rapids a 1-0 lead.
Jason Haas reached on an error and scored on Ty Karger's double to make it 2-0 in the second.
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A four-run third inning pushed Park Rapids' lead to 6-0 as doubles by Brand and Austin Jerger and singles by Zach Hocking and Haas sparked that inning.
Singles by Gabe Bagstad, Hocking and Jerger led to two more runs in the fourth for a 8-0 lead.
Walker scored in the bottom of the fourth when Jack DeWulf singled and scored on an error.
Post 212 concluded the scoring in the seventh when singles by Cameron Hoyt, Pickar, Brand and Bagstad produced the final two runs.
Pickar struck out six and faced only 25 batters over seven innings. Pickar (2 for 5), Brand (2 for 4, two runs), Bagstad (2 for 4, two runs), Hocking (2 for 5, two runs), Jerger (2 for 4) and Haas (2 for 4) led the Legion's offense.
Jack Naugle started and took the loss. Dan Mistic singled in the third and Phil Kangas singled in the seventh to account for Walker's other hits.
In the second game, Kruchowski retired the final seven batters he faced, finishing with two walks and nine strikeouts, in pitching Park Rapids to the sweep.
Singles by Jerger and Karger helped give Park Rapids took a 2-0 lead in the second.
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After singles by Dillon McGee and Michael Landquist cut the gap to 2-1 in the bottom of that inning, Brand singled and scored in the third to give Post 212 a 3-1 edge.
DeWulf tripled and scored on Naugle's grounder in the bottom of the inning as Walker trimmed the deficit to 3-2.
After Haas singled and scored in the fourth, Park Rapids sealed the win when Hocking reached on an error with two outs and scored on Jerger's two-run home run in the fifth.
Kangas held Park Rapids to six hits with Jerger going 2 for 3 and scoring twice.
Park Rapids will host the league tournament today (Wednesday) and Friday with games at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. The district tournament will be held July 20-23.
