Canby connection pays dividends for Mudhens

The day the Canby Knights folded a couple of years ago may have been one of the biggest days for the Minneota Mudhens.

Two Canby pitchers, Bryce Gorder and Zach Nuy are having banner seasons for the Mudhens.

Catcher Noah Scott has been an admirable backup and shortstop Adam Durfee leads the team in hitting and bolsters the defense at shortstop.

Wednesday night all four Canbyites had a hand in a 3-1 victory over the Dawson Drakes at Dawson.

The Canby pitchers, Bryce Gorder and Zach Nuy pitched a combined four-hitter, striking out 10 batters while walking just two.

Gorder had six of those strikeouts during his 60-pitch five innings of work.

Nuy mopped up, allowing just one hit the rest of the way.

In addition, Durfee singled home a run in the seventh and Scott added a hit and handled the pitching staff well from behind the plate.

Durfee leads the team in hitting with a .386 average with three home runs and nine runs batted in. Scott is hitting .261 and Nuy is 4-1 on the year with a 3.86 earned run average.

Gorder, who is working his way back from Tommy John surgery, started his first Mudhen game against the Drakes, went five innings and used 60 pitches. He was satisfied with his first start.

KEY MOMENT ... Jesse Drager and new Mudhen James Chalky were early for their ride to Dawson for Wednesday night's game.

"So me and James went out and hit to each other. I took a ton of bunts, a ton of bunts," said Drager.

It paid off at Dawson when, in the seventh inning, with the game tied at 1-1, Drager squeezed home Henry Pesch with the go-ahead run, 2-1.

"It really paid off," Drager said about all that bunting practice. Minneota banged out eight hits, two by Jake Leighton. One was a double. 

Tyson Sonnenburg's single and stolen base in the seventh started the rally and Henry Pesch's double kept it going.  

That's when Drager came along with his well-practiced bunt.

Minneota added an insurance run in the eighth. Jordan Beck walked  and eventually scored after singles by Leighton and Durfee.

Dawson's only hurrah came in the fourth when they put long shots together from Derek Gritmacher, who coasted into third and a long single by Josh Staab. After that, Gorder and Nuy took over.

Minneota is now 10-5 on the year and don't play again until they host the Cottonwood  Cardinals on Wednesday, June 27 during Kid's Night.

Minneota 3, Dawson 1

MINNEOTA (AB-R-H-RBI) Preston Nuy, 3b 5-0-1-0; Jake Leighton, lf 4-0-2-0; Adam Durfee, ss 4-0-1-1; Tyson Sonnenburg, cf 4-1-1-0; Henry Pesch, rf 4-0-1-1; Jesse Drager, 2b 3-0-1-1; James Chalky, pr 0-0-0-0; Noah Scott, c 3-0-1-0; Thomas Fischer, cr 0-0-0-0; Danny Hennen, 1b 3-0-1-0; Cal Swedzinski, ph 1-0-0-0; Jordan Beck, dh 2-1-0-0; Bryce Gorder, p 0-0-0-0; Zach Nuy, p 0-0-0-0; Austin Buysse, ph 0-0-0-0. Totals 34-3-9-3.

DAWSON (AB-R-H-RBI) Braxton Thompson, 2b-3b 4-0-0-0; Braeden Thompson, ss-p 4-0-0-0; Esten Weber, c 4-0-1-0; Derek Gritmacher, 3b-p 4-1-2-0; Josh Staab, p-2b 3-0-1-1; Scott Ochsendorf, 1b 3-0-0-0; Jordan Kack, lf 4-0-0-0; Ken Sather, rf 3-0-0-0; Tim Cariveau, cf 3-0-0-0. Totals 31-1-4-1.

Score by Innings: 

Minneota        000 000 210 — 3 9 1

Dawson           000 100 000 — 1 4 0

E-Minneota: Durfee. LOB-Minneota: 7; Dawson 6. SB-Minneota: Sonnenburg, Chalky; Dawson: Weber. SAC-Minneota-Drager. DP-Dawson 5-3 (1). 2B-Minneota: Leighton. 3B-Minneota: Pesch; Dawson: Gritmacher.

Pitching         IP   R    ER    H    BB    K

Minneota

Gorder           5     1    1        3     1       6

Nuy (W)        4     0    0        1     1       4

Dawson

Staab (L)        7     2    2        6     0       1

Gritmacher     1     1    1        2     1       1

Thompson      1     0    0        1     1       1

WP-Thompson. PB-Scott.