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June 1, 2010
Behind the solid pitching effort of Senior Luke Sleeper, the Cougars defeated the Henry Sibley Warriors 4-1 in the first round of Section 3AAA state playoffs. Second baseman Grant Mitchell sparkled defensively as he played a part in recording 9 of the 21 Warrior outs. Dan Noehring, Chane Donnelly and Derek Buermann provided the offensive spark to extend the Cougars winningest season and propel them on to the section quarterfinals. The game was played at Fredrickson Field in Elko on Friday May 28th under sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 80s.
Noehring led off the bottom of the first by taking ball four and then stealing second. Donnelly followed with a RBI single to get the Cougars on the board early. The next time around the order in the third inning, Noehring singled and Donnelly knocked him again, blasting a triple to the right center gap. Donnelly scored on Matt Heilmann’s ground out staking the Cougars to a 3-0 lead. The Warriors finally touched the Cougars for an unearned run in the top of the fourth. The Warriors scoring threat was squelched by a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. Leading off the bottom of the inning, Buermann quickly responded by clouting a towering drive over the left field fence to get the Cougars back to the 3 run advantage. The Junior, in the lineup as the designated hitter, connected on 3-0 count to dead straight away left field.
Meanwhile, Sleeper was sharp on the mound, mixing his pitches effectively to hold the Warriors to one unearned run on four hits in 5 and 2/3rds innings. The game was not without some drama however, as the Warriors loaded the bases in the top of the 6th aided by a fielding miscue. Will Lundquist took over in relief and threw one pitch to entice a line out to Heilmann in foul territory to end the threat. Lundquist recorded his first save retiring the Warriors in order in the 7th. Donnelly was 3 for 3 as the team collected 8 hits.
The Cougars (10 –11) will meet the #1 seeded St. Thomas Academy in a quarterfinal matchup at the Cadets home field. The Cadets are 17-2 and ranked 3rd in the State in 3AAA.
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