THIEF RIVER FALLS -- The Bemidji American Legion baseball team left no doubt on Thursday, dismantling Thief River Falls 14-3 and 8-2 in a road sweep.
The Centaurs improved to 8-1 on the season with the victories, and they wasted no time in jumping all over the Bandits on Thursday.
Brandon Lussier’s first-inning home run was only foreshadowing of what was to come. Cam Justice clubbed a two-run double later in the frame for a 4-0 head start in game one.
TRF got three of the runs back in the bottom half of the inning, but that’s all they produced for the rest of the game. Bemidji, however, was far from finished.
Grant DeClusin had an RBI triple in the second inning, and Hunter Brodina sped all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run in the third.
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After two more runs in the fifth, the Centaurs lit up the scoreboard with six in the sixth. Will Zellman tripled in two runs, Brodina, Ryan Loewe and Parker Mistic all singled in one, and Isaiah Biehn scored on an error for the decisive 14-3 spread.
Lussier also picked up the win on the mound, settling in after the first inning for a complete game. From the second inning on, he allowed zero runs, two hits, no walks and struck out five.
Game two followed a similar script: The Centaurs scored in the top of the first and Thief River Falls responded in the bottom half, but the Bandits didn’t score any runs after that.
This time around, Bemidji plated five runs to open the game thanks to DeClusin, Aaron Heger, Zellman and Brodina all picking up RBIs in the first frame.
The margin slimmed to 5-2 once TRF had its turn to bat, but that was all she wrote.
The Centaurs plated one run in the third inning and two more in the sixth inning for the final difference. DeClusin, meanwhile, toed the rubber and threw a complete game, allowing just the two runs on three hits while striking out eight.
Bemidji’s season marches on with a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Monday, June 28, at Detroit Lakes.
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Bemidji 14, Thief River Falls 3 (six innings)
BEM 411 026 -- 14-13-1
TRF 300 000 -- 3-5-3
WP: Lussier (CG, 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K)
Bemidji 8, Thief River Falls 2
BEM 501 002 0 -- 8-11-1
TRF 200 000 0 -- 2-3-1
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WP: DeClusin (CG, 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K)
LP: Kempert (3.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 2 K)
