The Chanhassen Red Birds punched their ticket into the next round of the playoffs with a 13-0 victory over the Le Sueur Braves at Storm Red Bird Stadium on Wednesday night. Close to 150 fans showed up just in time to see the Red Birds plate 6 runners, batting 11 in the bottom of the first inning.

Justin Thompson picthed the full game (7 innings) shutout, allowing just 1 hit while striking out 6 and erasing three walks with a CS from Catcher Kurt Jantscher in the top of the first, and three nifty double plays by the Red Birds infield.  No Le Sueur runner reached 2nd base, as the defense played solid infield.

Matt Lewis took the loss for the Le Sueur Braves who now host the Henderson Tigers in the first division elimination game, tomorrow night at Bruce Frank Field in Le Sueur.

For the Red Birds, they scored 13 runs on 11 hits, and 6 walks, and 3 errors by the Braves.  Each of the Red Bird starting nine scored at least one run as the offensive wealth was shared evenly.  Steve Sorenson was 3-4 with two singles and a double, scored twice and drove in 2 runs.  Jeff Pavlovich had two hits and scored twice in 5 at bats.  John Gulden was 1-3 with a double and two RBI's.  Kurt Jantscher went 1-3 in 4 plate appearances, scored twice and drove in a run with a walk in the bottom of the first.  Tom Bergner, married just recently, got a pinch hit single to drive in the final two runs in the bottom of the 6th inning.

Next game for the Red Birds is on Saturday, July 28th, at 6:00 PM.  But as of right now, we don't know who they will play, or where the game will be.  Watch this website for details in the next couple days.

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