BEMIDJI – Often, perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes, though, a performance meets that standard by acclamation.
An example? An immaculate inning. That’s exactly what Bemidji High School senior Ty Lundeen sculpted on the pitcher’s mound Wednesday at the BSU baseball field.
Carving up hitters with a powerful fastball, Lundeen chiseled through the East Grand Forks lineup in the fourth inning, striking out each batter he faced on precisely three pitches. It was the featured display of a prolific showcase by the Lumberjacks, who routed the Green Wave 15-1 in a run-rule shortened contest.
“It was awesome,” Lundeen said. “Just pounding the zone, it felt good. (Catcher Ryan Loewe) back there giving me the signs and everything. Fastball was probably 99% (usage) tonight. … It was really cool. I didn't think I'd ever throw an immaculate inning in my career.”
“It almost looked like in the fourth inning, he found another gear,” BHS head coach Mike Fogelson said. “It looked like for the first three innings, he was doing a really good job, but something in the fourth inning, it was like, ‘Wow.’ There was more burst, there was more velocity. And then the same thing in the fifth. I mean, he was just humming along there. So it's fun to watch. He's really returned to form and looking good right now.”
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Lundeen needed 12 pitches – four for each batter – to strike out the side in the fifth inning, finishing off a complete game with just one unearned run allowed on three hits.
Offensively, the Jacks pounced on EGF early and didn’t let the Green Wave slip away. Bemidji (5-1) plated five runs in the first inning, four in the second and six in the third. It was an ideal manifestation of Fogelson’s directive to remain aggressive throughout the matchup.
“We need to stay in attack mode, no matter how we're playing,” Fogelson said. “And the thing I liked today is we came out, and Ty on the mound was pounding the zone – that's attacking to me. We were swinging it at the plate early. We ran the bases hard early, and so we were attacking the way we needed. That was our mindset today. You’ve got to attack, and hopefully we'll continue that again tomorrow.”
Holding down a wave may be impossible, but Lundeen had a different metaphor in mind to describe the way BHS took it to East Grand Forks (3-1).
“That's what we're trying to do this year,” Lundeen said. “That was one of the goals this year: step on people's throats when we get up, so it was awesome. Pretty much a perfect game in my opinion.”
The Lumberjacks got production from up and down the lineup on Wednesday. Five different players recorded RBIs, led by Dan Clusiau and Will Zellmann with four each. Loewe and Lundeen added two apiece, and Ethan Biehn batted in one runner. Zellmann had the hit of the day, a double to the wall in right field that plated three baserunners.
Bemidji returns to the diamond against Wadena-Deer Creek at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, back at the BSU field.
Bemidji 15, East Grand Forks 1 (F/5)
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EGF 001 00 – 1-3-3
BHS 546 0X – 15-15-1
WP: Lundeen (CG, 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K)
LP: Anderson (2.2 IP, 14 H, 15 R, 15 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)
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