2006 Class A results

Postby ndplayer » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:59 pm

Does anyone have the full list?
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Postby Ming01 » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:41 pm

oops my bad for not putting him
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Postby Willy » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:42 pm

 
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[font=Arial]Knights win second title
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[font=Arial]By STEVE THOMAS
Bismarck Tribune
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[font=Arial]A horse is a horse and messing up doesn't suddenly turn him into a goat.

Senior shortstop John Greicar has been one of the horses on the Grand Forks Central baseball team all season and Sunday he came through again. Greicar tripled home the tying and go-ahead runs as Central rallied past Fargo North 5-3 for the state Class A baseball championship at Mandan.

"I definitely wanted to be in that situation because of the game I was having," Greicar said after delivering with Lane Smith on third base and Adam Marynik on second in the top of the seventh inning. "I'd made two errors and I knew I could pick up the team ... and make up for my mistakes."
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[font=Arial]Those mistakes were throwing errors on two North groundballs, the second of which led to the first Spartan run, an unearned tally in the fifth inning.

Up until that time, runs were hard to come by.

Central started to game with senior right-hander Nick Wright on the mound and Wright, 2-3 on the year, matched goose eggs with North ace Tom Ebert, 12-1, through three innings. The Knights got on the scoreboard first, racking up a pair of unearned markers in the fourth. The one-hit uprising was fueled by Ebert's throwing error on a force play at third base and a run-scoring balk. Jake Landry walked to start the inning and Sam Wedin singled. Both scored.

With the lead, Central coach Craig Champagne went to Landry, his ace senior right-hander, who had already thrown eight innings in the tournament.

Landry struggled through two innings, yielding two hits, walking a man and hitting a batter. He gave up an unearned run in the fifth on Nate Dehne's double and a throwing error by Greicar.

Junior right-hander Alex Kreis, who won Central's state tourney opener on Thursday, took over a 2-1 lead in the sixth and walked two men, Both of them scored on Tanner Bombenger's two-run double to the center field wall.

That put Central in a 3-2 hole with just three outs to go against Ebert, a big senior right-hander who had surrendered only two earned runs in 13 state tournament innings.

With one out, pinch hitter Zach Krebs reached base when Bombenger bobbled his grounder to shortstop. Lane Smith went in to run for Krebs. Champagne was forced to use another pinch hitter when the next batter, Joel Riopelle, fouled a 2-1 pitch off his jaw and had to leave the game. Adam Marynik came in and finished the at-bat, singling to right.

That brought up Greicar. On his second pitch to Greicar, Ebert threw a wild pitch into the dirt, the runners advancing to second and third. Then Greicar drilled a 1-and-2 fastball into the gap in right-center, chasing home Smith and Marynik.

Greicar said his main concern was to get the ball out of the infield. He had grounded out, popped to first and struck out in his first three cracks at Ebert.

"I was just trying to get the ball into the outfield with one out so he (Smith) could tag up," Greicar said. "... I hit a high fastball. I was a little late and slapped it to right field."

With two runs in, North coach Jeff Fiechtner pulled Ebert, who had thrown 91 pitches. Fiechtner brought in senior right-hander Grant Kragness, who picked up a win in Friday's semifinal game.

"I think he (Ebert) was out of gas. I really do," Fiechtner said.

Tim Gregoire punched a single through the left side of a drawn-up infield off Kragness, scoring Greicar to make it 5-3. Kragness struck out the next man, Landry, to quell the rally.

Given a second chance to hold a lead, Kreis didn't falter. Kreis, the winning pitcher for Central in Thursday's first round, surrendered a two-out double to Justin Sheets in the bottom of the seventh. Kreis then whiffed Gabe Shockman, representing the tying run, on a high 1-and-2 fastball to clinch Central's second state championship.

Kreis, who worked five innings on Thursday, said his arm responded well to short rest. "Warming up I felt pretty good. It was more of an anxiousness and nervousness thing," he said.

When North took its 3-2 lead, Kreis said he felt he had let the team down, but there was no corresponding letdown in the Central dugout. "You've got to come back," he said. "Things can happen and you've got to keep the momentum going."

Central entered tournament play as the No. 8 seed in the East Region and had to beat Wahpeton in a play-in game. The Knights upset top-seeded Fargo South en route to the regional championship game where they lost to North 2-0. It took Sunday's victory to get Central over the .500 mark at 15-14.

North, meanwhile, lost for just the second time in 17 games and finished 30-11.

"We had a rough start," Kreis said, "but we knew we had the potential from the get-go. We sat down (before the regional tournament) and said, 'We have to pull it together. It's tournament time'. ... This one was for Craig (Champagne). It's important when someone believes in you and invests in you."

Champagne said the comeback win showed the heart of his players. "You've just got to play all 21 outs ... and at the end if we win I'm happy," he said.

Fiechtner tipped his hat to Central.

"Central competed well. They didn't give up," he said.

3 NOTES: Sunday's finale was the first all-East Region championship in the 13-year history of the state Class A baseball tournament. ... Central, which has played in four of the last seven state title games, has two state titles. The first came in 2000. ... North, playing in its 11th state tournament, was going for its second championship. The Spartans won in 2002 and have played in three of the last five title games. ... Sunday's championship game, originally scheduled Saturday night, was washed out by heavy rain. Williston downed Mandan 9-4 for fifth place on Saturday, Devils Lake edged Century 6-4 for seventh and the third-place game between Minot and Grand Forks Red River was washed out.

G.F. Central 000 200 3 - 5 7 2

Fargo North 000 012 0 - 3 6 3

Nick Wright, Jake Landry (4), Alex Kreis (6) and Alex Moe; Tom Ebert, Grant Kragness (7) and Alex Bergeron. W - Kreis, 5-3. L - Ebert, 12-2. HR - None.

Highlights: GFC - John Greicar 1-for-4, triple, 1 R, 2 RBIs; Tim Gregoire 3-for-4, triple, 1 RBI; Sam Wedin 1-for-2, 1 R; Adam Marynik 1-for-1, 1 R; Wright 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO; Landry 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO; Kreis 2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO. FN - Tanner Bombenger 2-for-4, double, 2 RBIs; Justin Sheets 1-for-4, double; Gabe Shockman 1-for-3, 1 R; Nate Dehne 2-for-2, double, 2 R; Ebert 6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO; Kragness 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO.

Records: G.F. Central 15-14, Fargo North 30-11.
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Last edited by Willy on Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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