Baseball roundup: Clutch hits puts Willmar Cardinals past St. Cloud Crush

May 9—WILLMAR — Timely hitting was the difference in the Willmar baseball team's conference win over the St. Cloud Crush on Thursday evening.

The Cardinals put together two runs on three hits in the fourth inning to get past St. Cloud with a 2-0 victory in the Central Lakes Conference game at Klemmetson Field.

Willmar, which has won four of its last five contests, improves to 7-5 overall and 5-5 in conference play. The Crush are 10-4 overall and 7-3 in the CLC.

Reese Christianson and Cullen Gregory began the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back singles. Braeden Fagerlie went on to hit an RBI double to score Christianson and Conlan Carlson grounded out and brought in Gregory on the play to give the Cardinals their pair of runs.

Christianson finished 2-for-3 with one run. The sophomore also went all seven innings on the mound. He struck out five and walked four, allowing two hits.

Fagerlie, a junior left fielder, finished 2-for-3 and Gregory was 1-for-2 to round out Willmar's five-hit night.

The Cardinals go to Sauk Rapids at 5 p.m. Friday for another CLC game.

Luke Zander hit a walk-off grand slam to secure a sweep of the Wildcats for Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted at New London.

NLS tallied four hits, which came from Fisher Glauvitz, Eli Jacobson, Nolan Johnson and Grant Paffrath. Paffrath's went for a double.

Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted hung on to beat New London-Spicer at Green Lake Diamonds in Spicer.

Garret White was 2-for-3 with an RBI for NLS.

Kaden DeRoo went 3-for-3 with one run and Ethan Mueller was 2-for-4 with one run and three RBIs in Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa's win at Royalton.

Aiden Mueller earned the win for the Jaguars. He went six innings with four strikeouts and four walks, allowing seven hits and two earned runs over that stretch.

Ethan Mueller had seven strikeouts and allowed six hits and two runs over 6-1/3 innings in Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa's victory at Royalton.

Kaden DeRoo, Luke Dingmann, Luke Illies, Jack Lundberg and Aiden Mueller each had one hit for the Jaguars.

Alex Marty and Jonah Huebner both hit one double in Morris/Chokio-Alberta's victory over the Warriors at Morris.

Emmitt Flann, Jack Kaiser and Hunter Malvin each had a pair of hits for BOLD. One of Flann's went for a double.

Owen Anderson, Alex Asmus and Kaleb Breuer all had two hits for the Tigers in their win against BOLD at Morris.

Morris/Chokio-Alberta held the Warriors to three hits. Max Benson, Emmitt Flann and Tate Sheehan each had a single.

Brock Bjornjeld tossed a five-inning no-hitter for Lac qui Parle Valley at Madison.

It's the second straight no-hitter for the Eagles, who got a six-inning no-hitter from Dyllon Geiser in Tuesday's 11-0 victory over Lakeview.

LQPV head coach Darby Bjorgan believes it's the first time the Eagles have had back-to-back no-hitters in school history.

"I was talking to Bart (retired long-time head coach Hill) and he doesn't think so," Bjorgan said. "My pitching coach Wyatt Halverson did a nice job. Give Wyatt a shout-out."

Bjornjeld struck out nine and walked one.

"With the pitch count, we're telling guys to be aggressive, pump the zone," Bjorgan said. "And they have experience. They had experience last year. It helps."

LQPV is host to a tournament Saturday. LQPV and Border West play at 10 a.m., followed by Border West vs. Yellow Medicine East. The final game is LQPV vs. YME at about 2:30 p.m.

Tracy-Milroy-Balaton pitchers Connor Lanoue and Noah Knakmuhs combined on a four-hitter to beat Central Minnesota Christian at Prinsburg.

Lanoue went the first five innings, allowing three hits. He struck out five and walked three. Knakmush went the final two innings, striking out two and allowing one hit.

Wesley Fussy was 2-for-3 for the Bluejays.

Nathan Hansen and Beau Johnson each had two hits to help propel Dawson-Boyd to a six-inning win over Renville County West at Sacred Heart.

Hansen was 2-for-3 with two runs, a pair of steals and an RBI. Johnson went 2-for-3 with two runs and two steals.

Casen Atrerburn, Connor Peterson, Austin Rice and Isaiah Schroeder all had one hit for RCW.

A 17-run third inning pushed Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg past Lakeview in five innings at Cottonwood.

Jared Cortez went 4-for-6 with three doubles, three runs, four RBIs and two stolen bases for the Fighting Saints. Logan Rudningen was 4-for-5 with four runs, two doubles, two RBIs and a stolen base for KMS.

Jase Dirksen went 2-for-2 with two runs and a pair of RBIs in the Wolverines' win over Ortonville at Raymond.

Dirksen also earned the win for MACCRAY. He struck out six batters and walked zero, allowing two hits in five innings of work.

Carson Javers, Ryan Meagher and Parker Bradley all had two hits to lead Minneota past Yellow Medicine East at Granite Falls.

Andrew Flaten, Gage Wilke, Braden Nelson, Eric Jimenez, Connor Fagen and Owen Cherveny all had hits for the Sting.