MITCHELL, S.D. – The Garretson Blue Jays advanced to the semifinals of the State Amateur Baseball Tournament with a 2-1 win over Mt. Vernon on Thursday night behind the pitching of Nick Bonte and Aaron LaBrie.
Bonte gave up one run over the first six innings, giving up seven hits to the Mustangs before LaBrie would come in from first base for a three inning save, striking out six and allowing two hits.
Mt. Vernon would take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on an Eric Giblin double to left that scored Chase Hetland from second.
The Blue Jays would immediately answer with their only two runs of the game in the top of the 4th inning on a double by LaBrie that scored Bonte and Scott Splett.
Dimock-Emery’s Blake Moke kept Mt. Vernon in the game all night long throwing nine innings, giving up two runs and seven hits with five strikeouts. Moke retired the last 10 batters he faced with perfect, three-up, three-down innings in the seventh, eighth and ninth.
The Mustangs would have opportunities to score in the first and sixth innings as they had runners thrown out at home twice. Briggs Havlik would try to score from second on a Deric Denning single to right with two outs in the first inning before being thrown out at home by Jesse Brockhouse. Mt. Vernon’s Bradley Dean was thrown out at home in the sixth inning trying to score from second on a Brady Albrecht single to center field.
Garretson will play in the first semifinal on Saturday night at 5:30 pm against the winner of Alexandria and Lennox. Mt. Vernon ends the season with a 12-12 record.