BOLD takes advantage of five St. Agnes errors to reach 1A baseball championship game

BOLD's Sawyer Tersteeg threw his bat down in disgust after what appeared to be a routine pop-up with two outs and two runners poised to score in the third inning of Friday's Class 1A semifinal game.

Initially disappointed, Tersteeg noticed the St. Agnes second baseman and shortstop struggling to get a read on the ball. To Tersteeg's delight, the ball landed on the infield dirt and both Warriors' runners scored. The play was one of five errors committed by defending state champion St. Agnes throughout BOLD's 12-4 rout at the Mini Met in Jordan.

"It was a good hit," a smiling Tersteeg joked.

The error gave BOLD a 4-3 lead after three innings. The Warriors (17-6) later exploded for seven runs in the top of the fifth. Tyler Seehusen drove a double to the left-field wall and scored. The next batter, Logan Sandgren, lifted a ball over the right-field fence toward picturesque downtown Jordan for a two-run homer.

Batting for the second time in the inning, Trevor Nissen hit a two-out single with the bases loaded to expand the lead.

"It was nice getting more runs on the board and putting pressure on the pitcher," he said.

No. 4 seed St. Agnes (14-7) violated a baseball axiom by giving its opponent costly extra outs.

Osakis 3, New York Mills 0: One day after co-authoring a shutout victory in the quarterfinals, Osakis pitchers Kilar Zimmel and Jordan Frederick switched roles but stayed in control.

The No. 3-seed Silverstreaks (20-2) defeated New York Mills 3-0 with Zimmel allowing one hit in five innings. He turned the ball over to Frederick, Thursday's winner, and Frederick posted a save with two scoreless innings. Zimmel pitched the final inning on Thursday.

They have combined for 12 innings of scoreless pitching, allowing seven hits and four walks while striking out 14 batters. They dealt New York Mills its first shutout of the season.

"We kept a fast pace, went out and threw hard," Frederick said. "That's what we like to do."

Zimmel set the tone with a perfect first three innings against second-seeded New York Mills (20-3). A fourth-inning single to right field from the Eagles' Nick Kupfer was the first ball that left the infield.

His offense did likewise, scoring one run in each of the first three innings. Frederick scored in the first while Zimmel came home in the third.

"Each run gave me just a little more room to breathe," Zimmel said.

He afforded New York Mills batters no such luxury. Mixing a solid fastball with a breaking ball, Zimmel worked the corners of the strike zone and kept the Eagles off-balance.