Owatonna's VFW baseball team qualified for the state tournament with a top two finish in the district tournament over the weekend. Post 3723 secured the berth with a 5-1 victory over top-seed Northfield Sunday. State is August 7-11 in Brainerd.

The Twitter account @OTownBaseball indicates, "a complete game by Brayden Truelson, one big inning, and some brilliant catches by Payton Beyer in CF. Final 5-1 over Northfield. Fun to watch."

It's been a memorable post season for Owatonna, including a 9-7 win in the subdistrict over Century after trailing 7-0 last week. Austin is the other team that advances to the VFW state tournament. Austin's American Legion team is also state-tournament bound after winning the sub-state over the Rochester Patriots Saturday. Owatonna Post 77 was eliminated by Albert Lea last week.

The Owatonna Aces won the winner-take-all game three match-up with Pine Island Sunday 16-0 at Fuller Field to advance to the Region 5C tournament. Matt Simon powered the offense with a grand slam and eight RBI. Abe Havelka earned the pitching victory in his first Aces' outing, according to @Aces_Baseball on Twitter.

The Aces won the opener of the series last Wednesday 5-4, coming from behind against the Pioneers. Owatonna nearly pulled off that trick again on Saturday at RCTC in Rochester. Pine Island jumped ahead 4-1 after four innings. The Aces pulled into a 5-all tie with a three-run sixth inning. The Pioneers scored the winning run in the seventh for a 6-5 victory, forcing Sunday's game three.

Owatonna ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak and has now won six of their last seven. The Aces are led on the mound by Brandon Wolf who has appeared in at least ten games with a great 2.270 ERA according to mnbaseball.org. Dexter Leer tops Owatonna with a .317 batting average. Matt Simon has smacked at least three home runs. Kodey Kiel has at least 14 RBI. (Stats don't seem to include the playoffs.)

Pairings for the tournament will be announced soon.

 

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