ROSEMOUNT, Minn. -- The Miles Community College baseball team is headed to the North Plains District championship after defeating Bismarck State in a winner-take-all championship game at the Region XIII tournament on Sunday.
The Pioneers (44-14) lost an 11-6 game in Sunday's first championship but used a five-running second inning to propel past the Mystics in the deciding game. Chase Linn, a right-handed pitcher from Great Falls, got the start in Game 2 and threw a complete-game four-hitter. He struck out six Mystics and walked four in the clutch performance with the season on the line.
Bismarck State plated a run in the top of the first inning, but Linn kept the Mystics at bay the rest of the way. The Pioneers tied the game in the bottom of the first when Brayden Howard scored on a Cade Stuff single.
The pivotal second inning got started with a Jake Lacey single and walks from Ian Krump and Hunter Lasko walk to load the bases. Jaden Webster lined a single to left field to score Lacey and Krump. Howard then hit a bunt single to the pitcher to load the bases again. Stuff hit a sacrifice fly that scored Lasko and gave MCC a 4-1 lead. Tim Holyk then reached on an error by Bismarck State that allowed Webster and Howard to score and push the lead to 6-1.
Krump homered to left in the third for the final run of the game.
Dawson Parry, who leads NJCAA Division II in batting average (.517), on-base percentage (.611), slugging (1.052), RBI (87) and home runs (24), was named the Region XIII MVP after the game.
Game 1 on Sunday was a back-and-forth affair until the Mystics scored seven runs over the final two innings to take the victory.
The Pioneers tied it at 4-4 in the seventh on an RBI single from Parry, but Bismarck State tallied three runs in the top of the eighth for a 7-4 lead. MCC plated two runs in the bottom of the eighth, but the Mystics then tallied four more runs in the top of the ninth to put the game out of reach and force the winner-take-all deciding game.
The North Plains District championship is Friday and Saturday at Kirkwood College in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
