BOTTINEAU — It took North Star a few innings to get a rally going against Rugby southpaw Zackary Schneibel.
But once the Bearcats strung some hits together, they didn’t let up. No. 2 seed North Star (8-5) opened the Region 5 baseball playoffs with a 15-6 win over No. 3 seed Rugby (8-8) in the Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberyard on Thursday.
“It’s always big when you can win your first game of the tournament,” North Star head coach Jesse Vote said. “And just confidence-wise, we finally got after the Schneibel kid there in the middle innings. And hitting is contagious.”
The Bearcats totaled 10 hits and scored in every inning but the second. They poured it on with a six-run fourth, then added two in the fifth and four in the sixth to leave no doubt.
“Hitting has been a strength of ours, I would say, all year long, for the most part,” Vote said. “And it was just a matter of time.”
North Star starter JD DuPreez had to contend with traffic all afternoon, but he got through four innings. A leadoff walk scored against him in the top of the first. He stranded a pair of runners in each of the first two innings, surviving three walks and a hit by pitch.
North Star had a quick response in the bottom of the first. Rylen Anderson poked a triple into the right-field corner, and Ian Westlind drove him in with a sacrifice fly.
Rugby inched back ahead in the top of the third, bringing around a leadoff double. Alec Peyerl led off the Bearcats’ half of the inning with his own double, and Westlind came through again with an RBI single to tie it at 2-2.
Westlind scored the go-ahead run on a comedy of errors. He advanced to third on back-to-back balks, then raced home on a wild pitch.
DuPreez struck out three in a scoreless fourth. He totaled six strikeouts on the afternoon. He allowed three hits, four walks and two hit batsmen.
“It was nice for him to get that far in the game for us,” Vote said. “We get ourselves into way too many full counts and three-ball counts. And obviously in a tournament, you’ve got to save your arms as much as possible. But he found ways to get outs. He did his job; got us to the fifth inning.”
The Bearcats gave DuPreez and the pitching staff some breathing room with their six-run rally in the bottom of the fourth.
Anderson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, while Westlind and Hunter Hagler each tallied a two-run single. Westlind led North Star with four RBIs on the day. Once the damage had subsided, North Star led 9-2.
“It just took us the first time to get through and see [Schneibel],” Vote said. “And see the curveball that he has, to see the arm drop and location. I just told them, ‘You’ve got to have confidence at the plate.’”
The first two batters reached against DuPreez in the fifth. His day ended there, after 95 pitches. The tall, hard-throwing Westlind took over.
Westlind struck out two in the inning, but he allowed both inherited runners to score on a groundout and a wild pitch. Westlind appeared to be out of the inning with North Star still leading 9-5, but right fielder Kale Prouty dropped a fly ball that brought in another.
North Star added two in the bottom of the fifth, with an RBI single by Sean Freund and a passed ball. Westlind still couldn’t find his groove, though, as he gave up a run on two hits and a hit batsman in the sixth.
With the lead down to 11-6 and the bases loaded for Rugby, Levi Borstad entered to get one big out. Borstad struck out Schneibel, allowing the Bearcats to sigh some breaths of relief. Rugby was really just one big swing away from making it interesting.
It hardly mattered anyway, though, as North Star added four more in the bottom of the sixth and nearly won by run rule.
Coy Freund sparked the rally with an RBI single. Rugby’s second baseman had a tough inning, committing back-to-back errors that allowed two runs to score. Peyerl and Anderson drew back-to-back walks, and a run scored on a wild pitch to make it 15-6.
Borstad closed it with a 1-2-3, two-strikeout seventh inning. He retired all four batters he faced, striking out three of them.
This North Star crew, which looks similar on paper to last year’s but with an extra year of experience, advanced to Monday to play the winner of No. 1 seed Bottineau vs. No. 4 seed Northern Lights.
“These guys have played a lot of baseball together, and the experience is definitely there,” Vote said. “And experience is big, especially when you get into a regional tournament. You’ve got to have those guys that are gonna lead you. We’ve got a lot of those guys that have been through games like this before.”
If the Bearcats had lost this game, they would have had to play another game on Thursday. Instead, they get to rest up and prepare for Monday.
“What’s the wind gonna do this afternoon? That’s probably the nicest thing, if it picks up to 50 miles an hour,” Vote said. “But yeah, it’s nice to have a break. … We can get a couple guys’ arms a little bit more rest, which is always needed in the postseason.”
Monday’s game will be at the Lumberyard again, with first pitch at 1 p.m. The tournament is double-elimination.
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