PERHAM -- The Bemidji Junior Legion baseball team is one win away from a state berth.
The Woodpeckers have done most of the legwork with a 3-0 start to the Sub-State F Tournament. Bemidji defeated Detroit Lakes 10-0 and Moorhead 2-1 on Sunday, and the Woodpeckers blanked top-seeded Perham 1-0 on Monday to reach the title round.
Game one of the championship series is scheduled for 3 p.m. today, Tuesday, July 20, in Perham, where Bemidji will play the winner of Perham and Moorhead. The Woodpeckers will advance to state with a win, while a loss would bring on a winner-take-all rematch at noon on Wednesday, July 21.
Against seventh-seeded DL, second-seeded Bemidji piled on runs all morning to finish things off in six innings. After Cam Justice singled in a first-inning run, the Woodpeckers stretched the lead to 4-0 in the third thanks to runs coming across on an error, a walk and a Peyton Neadeau double.
Two more scored on Gavin Kapaun’s single in the fourth, which Casey St. John followed with another run-scoring single for a 7-0 advantage. Soon after, Neadeau’s sacrifice fly was the third run of the sixth inning and served as a mercy-rule walk-off.
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St. John picked up the win from the mound, going 3 1/3 frames and allowing one hit while striking out five.
Against third-seeded Moorhead, Bemidji kept up its stout pitching off the arm of Ty Lundeen. Lundeen permitted a first-inning run off a two-out double, but then he didn’t allow another hit until the sixth inning.
Meanwhile, the Woodpecker offense managed to tie things up when Kapaun singled in Will Zellman in the fourth inning. One frame later, Hunter Brodina scored Neadeau on a two-out single for the eventual winning run.
Lundeen went the distance on the rubber and gave up just one run off two hits while striking out nine.
Finally, Bemidji topped the field’s No. 1 seed by holding Perham to just three hits. Neadeau tossed 6 1/3 innings and picked up the win for his efforts, while Brodina closed the door with a two-out save.
The lone run of the game came in the second inning, when Zellman clubbed a one-out triple and scored on Kapaun’s ensuing groundout.
Perham twice got runners to third base, but they finished the game 0-6 with runners in scoring position.
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Bemidji 10, Detroit Lakes 0 (six innings)
DL 000 000 -- 0-2-5
BEM 103 303 -- 10-9-0
WP: St. John (3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K)
LP: Davidson (3.2 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K)
Bemidji 2, Moorhead 1
MHD 100 000 0 -- 1-2-1
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BEM 000 110 X -- 2-5-2
WP: Lundeen (CG, 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K)
Bemidji 1, Perham 0
BEM 010 000 0 -- 1-5-1
PER 000 000 0 -- 0-3-1
WP: P. Neadeau (6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K)
LP: Schmelz (CG, 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)
