LANGDON — Langdon Area/Munich sophomore Dawson Downs felt that he had home run power in him.
“I feel like if I get a piece of one well, I can hit it a pretty good ways,” Downs said.
Before this week, he had never homered in a game.
With the Cardinals trailing 2-1 in the second inning of Wednesday’s playoff game against Midway/Minto, Downs crushed a ball over the right field fence for his first long ball.
“It felt great,” he said. “I didn’t think it was out right away, and then yeah, it went over. It was nice to see the bats get going as a team, too.”
Downs’ bomb helped LA/M come back from an early deficit, but it was just a preview of what was to come. The No. 1 seed Cardinals (19-4) scored eight in the third inning to eventually rout the No. 4 seed Mustangs (5-9) with a walk-off 12-2 win in five innings, securing a first-round victory in the Region 4 baseball tournament at Langdon Area High School.
“Dawson Downs kind of ignited us in the eight-hole there,” LA/M head coach Josh Krivarchka said. “Had a great approach at the plate. … That’s always good to see when the bottom of the order is producing.”
Downs went 2-for-2 with a walk and three RBIs overall. Nine-hitter Grady Pankratz went 2-for-3 with a double, while seven-hitter Sam Davis added a hit and a run.
The top two hitters in the Cardinals’ order, Jax Johnson and Connor Mitchell, walked in their first six combined plate appearances of the evening. LA/M totaled nine walks as a team.
“We weren’t chasing pitches or anything like that,” Krivarchka said. “They were kind of setting the table, and that’s what we want out of them guys.”
Cardinals five-hitter Devin Hakanson went 3-for-3, including a two-out RBI single that put them up 1-0 in the first.
M/M briefly led 2-1 after a two-run homer by Blake Lizakowski — the first of his career. But Downs took the spotlight away from Lizakowski a little bit by achieving the same accomplishment.
“He hasn’t really shown the power like that before, but it’s pretty neat,” Krivarchka said. “He puts in a lot of time, and he really cares about the sport of baseball. And to see him come through like that in a big spot, it’s always fun to see kids rewarded for their hard work.”
A pair of passed balls allowed LA/M to take a 3-2 lead.
Tyson Gemmill pitched the first three innings for the Cardinals with just the two runs allowed.
The bottom of the third had all kinds of chaos en route to LA/M blowing it open.
The first seven Cardinals reached base, and the first five scored in the eight-run frame. Davis loaded the bases with a bunt single. Downs, continuing to see the ball well, swung at the first pitch and lined a two-run single.
“I just try to put the ball in play, line drive, and let the bat do the work, and see how far I can hit it,” Downs said.
Pankratz doubled, then came all the way around to score as the catcher’s throw to third base sailed into left field. It was a three-run Little League homer.
“Kind of cool to see an inside-the-park home run; you don’t see that all the time,” said Downs, who scored amidst the pandemonium.
Landon Schneider and Devin Hakanson added RBI hits to keep the line moving. Eleven Cardinals batted in the inning, which came to an abrupt end on a caught-stealing.
After collecting his breath from his trip around the bases, Pankratz pitched the final two innings for LA/M. He worked around a single in each frame, collecting three strikeouts.
The Cardinals couldn’t score in the fourth against Trenton Sitzer — the Mustangs’ fourth pitcher of the game — but they walked it off in the bottom of the fifth. Theo Romfo, who took a rare 0-for, drew a walk and scored on a hit by Schneider.
“I thought we got on the bats right away,” Downs said. “It was good just to win the first game and start off hot in the tournament and get ready for tomorrow.”
With the run-rule victory behind them, the Cardinals advanced to a rematch with No. 2 seed Park River Area on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The teams split their two regular-season meetings.
“The thing with Park River is that they’re sound fundamentally,” Krivarchka said. “They pitch the ball really well. We’ve got to pitch the ball well and come up with the big hit in clutch situations. And as long as we relax and do all that, we’ll be fine.”
Other scores from Langdon on Wednesday
No. 5 Pembina County North 5, No. 4 Midway/Minto 25 (5 innings)
No. 3 Grafton 6, No. 2 Park River Area 8
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