After their first week of action the Staples Motley baseball team is undefeated and the champions of the Park Rapids Wood Bat Tourna- ment.

Play- ing three games last weekend, the Cards beat Greenway, Wheaton and Park Rapids to win the championship.

Friday night saw SM facing the Raiders from Greenway in a low scoring game. Gunner Johnson pitched a great opening game, with Jordan Riewer coming on in relief in the seventh. Johnson struck out 12 batters over the six innings, and gave up just one hit, but the tight defense behind him didn’t allow the runner to score.

The game was 0-0 going into the top of the sixth, when the Cardinals scored their first run. Trevor Smith slammed a double, and moved to third when the Raiders tried to pick him off at second.

Riewer came up and scored Smith by hitting a ground ball to short.

Their second run came in the next inning, when Dylan Shequen singled with one out to start things off. Tyler Jenniges put down a nice sacrifice bunt to move Shequen over, and on an error by the pitcher, Jenniges got on base. Shequen then scored on “a beautiful suicide squeeze by Sam Duberowski,” according to coach John Riewer.

Baseball tourney champs The Cardinal baseball team played last weekend in the Park Rapids Wood Bat Tournament, taking home the first place trophy with wins over Greenway, Wheaton and Park Rapids. (Submitted photo ) The boys held on to win the game 2-0. This win put the Cards up against Wheaton in the semi-finals on Saturday morning.

The semi-final was a little higher scoring game. Starting out on the mound was Alex Jansson, pitching four innings and striking out six batters. Tyler Jenniges earned the save, pitching three innings and giving up no runs.

Staples Motley cranked out a run in the first and two more in the second. Wheaton scored two in the third inning to tighten the score at 3-2. The bottom of the fourth started out with Chad Beebe slamming a triple. Beebe scored on a RBI ground ball by Smith, putting the Cards ahead 4-2, where they stayed for the rest of the game.

“We made some nice defensive plays behind a very good pitching performance from Jansson and Jenniges,” said Coach Riewer. “A big play for us came in the third inning when Wheaton had bases loaded. A single out to Warner in right field scored one run, but the runner on second was thrown out at the plate as Warner hit Johnson on the cut off and Johnson threw to Haglin at the plate for an out to end the rally and the inning.”

“We got a lot of contributions from a lot of different players in this game.” Smith, Carter, Hoemberg and Haglin, along with Beebe did well at the plate, all getting hits. Stealing bases for the Cards were Jansson, Riewer and Duberowski.

Mid State rival Park Rapids was the opponent in the championship game on Saturday afternoon.

The game was tied 2-2 going into the last inning, when Staples Motley scored three to become the champions of the Wood Bat Tournament.

Each team got seven hits, but the Staples Motley boys came through and scored five, while the Panthers scored just two. Putting down singles were Smith, Riewer, Johnson, Shequen, Beebe, Redemske and Duberowski. Riewer started out on the mound pitching seven innings, and was relieved by Jeremy Hoemberg.

“This was a great defensive baseball game, Riewer and Hoemberg pitched very well. Smith made some very nice catches in center field, and Austin Redemske did a nice job behind the plate. Dylan Shequen had a clutch two out RBI single in the fifth inning and Chad Beebe had a big RBI single in the eighth,” Coach Riewer said.

The boys were 3-0 before facing Mid- State Conference rival Pequot Lakes here Tuesday night. On Friday they will be at Bertha Hewitt. Next Tuesday they host Minnewaska.