(Council Bluffs, IA) — Underwood is going back to the state baseball tournament for the third year in a row and will get a chance to defend their Class 2A title as the Eagles beat Tri Center 6-1 in the Substate Finals on Tuesday night.
It was not the prettiest of games; pitchers on both sides hit a combined 13 batters. Tri Center actually had more hits than Underwood but the Eagles made the fewest mistakes.
In the top of the first, Underwood starter Garrett Luett hit the first batter he faced Lincoln Thomas who stole 2nd base and scored on a RBI single from Carter Kunze to make it 1-0 Trojans.
Tri Center starter Thomas ran into trouble of his own — hitting Hudson Ross who was the first batter he faced. After Luett flied out to deep left, Ryker Adair walked and with Garrett Miles at the plate, Trojan Cather Tristin Gunderson tried a pick off at first but the ball went down the line for an error. Ross rounded third to try and score and the ball was thrown away for the 2nd error and that scored Adair all the way from first. Underwood led 2-1 without a hit.
Thomas lost his control in the bottom of the third — he hit Adair to lead off the inning. Gavin Miles reached on a fielders choice and moved to 2nd on a wild pitch and to 3rd on a passed ball. After Nick Hackett struck out, Thomas walked Easton Robertson and then he hit three batters in a row, the last two were Maddox Mechaelsen and Blake Brensel the 8 and 9 hitters with the bases loaded to force in two runs. That was it for Thomas who went 2 2/3 innings and did not allow a hit but gave up 4 runs, walked 2, struck out 2 and hit 8 batters.
Carter Kunze came in to relieve Thomas and struck out Ross to get out of the inning. Kunze got a scoreless 4th but in the bottom of the 5th, Connor Brummett got Underwood’s first hit of the game on an infield single. Mechaelsen walked but his runner Ryan Fletcher was thrown out at 2nd on Brensel’s grounder. With Ross at the plate, Kunze threw a wild pitch to bring home Brummett. Ross would walk and Luett delivered a RBI single to make it 6-1.
That was more than enough for Luett who only allowed four baserunners the rest of the game after the first inning. At one point he struck out 9 in a row. Tri Center got back to back singles to start the 7th from Kael Corrin and AJ Harder but Luett got strikeout, fly out and strikeout to end the game. Luett finished with a season 15 strikeouts.
Easton Robertson is one of four Seniors on the team and he went 0-2 but scored a run and stole a base.
Every player in the Underwood line up was hit by a pitch except for Garrett Luett.
Tri Center ended the season at 19-5.
Underwood is now 24-2 and is the #1 seed in the 2A State Tournament — they play Cascade in Carroll in Tuesday, July 22 at 11 am.
Line Score
Tri Center (19-5) — 1 run, 3 hits, 3 errors, 5 LOB
Underwood (24-2) — 6 runs, 2 hits, 1 error, 9 LOB
W: Luett (10-0)
L: Thomas (2-2)
Time: 1:50
