The Chanhassen Red Birds dominated the Gaylord Islanders on Wednesday night with a convincing 13-0 win in 7 innings over the #2 seed from the West Division of the River Valley League.

Justin Thompson pitched another gem, giving up just 1 hit and two walks while striking out 13 Islanders, including all three in the top of the 7^th inning to end the game exactly the way he likes too, with three wining third strikes.

The Red Birds got on the board in the 2^nd inning when Kurt Jantscher doubled down the right field line. He moved to third on a pass ball.  After Nate Swenson walked, a wild pitch brought Jantscher home from third and moved Swenson to 2^nd.  Malmgren then walked, and two more WPs from starter Josh Gasow of the Islanders, and Swenson scored from third.  2-0 Red Birds after two innings.

In the top of the third, Thompson sandwiched two walks between three strike outs, and it was the only time that the Islanders got anyone to 2^nd base.  It was also the last base runner allowed by Thompson, as he retired the last 13 batters in a row.

As the 130 plus in attendance watched the storm clouds building to the west and south of the stadium, the Red Birds erupted for 7 runs in the bottom of the 3^rd inning.  An opening walk to T.J. Gulden was followed by two fielding errors allowing both John Gulden and David Naughtin to reach to load the bases. A walk to Justin Thompson scored T.J. for the first of the inning.  With one out, Justin Kurth was hit by a Gasow pitch forcing in John Gulden.   Nate Swenson then lined a double to right center that scored Naughtin and Thompson, leaving Kurth on third base.  Casey Malmgren then walked to load the bases for lead-off batter, Jeff Pavlovich.

Islanders’ manager, Mike Walsh, lifted the starter Gasow for the left handed Brody Rodning, and “Pav” welcomed the reliever with a single up the middle that scored Kurth and the speedy Swenson from 2^nd base, leaving Malmgren at 3^rd.  T.J. came to the plate for the 2^nd time in the inning and grounded to 2^nd baseman for a force at 1^st that drove in Malmgren.  Seven runs across in the inning; Red Birds leading 9-0.

With the crowd anxiously awaiting the movement of the storm clouds brewing, and a-buzz with talk about getting the game in rather than be delayed, like the one that was going on between the Belle Plaine Tigers at the St. Peter Saints, the game moved quickly to the 5^th inning. 

In the bottom of the 5^th, Casey Malmgren got “all wood” on a triple to right center and scored on a Jeff Pavlovich infield hit to deep short, then advancing to 2^nd on the wild throw (and much too late) to first.  10-0 Red Birds after 5 full innings.

In the bottom of the 6^th, Paul Mages moved from right field to the pitcher’s mound for Gaylord and Thompson promptly looped a broken bat single to short left field.  Jantscher lined a single to right for his 2^nd hit, moving Thompson to third base.  With Justin Kurth batting, a WP from Mages got Jantscher to 2^nd.  Kurth then hit a fly to deep center that sacrificed Thompson in from third.  Swenson singled to right field moving Jantscher to third base.  Tom Bergner then delivered a pinch hit RBI single to right field that drove in Jantscher and put Swenson on third base.  Pavlovich then lifted a sacrifice fly ball to center field to plate Swenson with his 4^th RBI for the game. Red Birds on top, 13-0 after 6 innings.

In the top of the 7^th, Thompson struck out all three Islander pinch hitters for the complete game one-hitter with an identical outcome as he did against the Le Sueur Braves exactly one week ago.  Thompson moves his season record to 6 wins and no losses; lowering his team leading ERA to 1.21 and lifting his team leading strikeout total to 86, and holding opponents’ batting average to just .153.

The Red Birds pounded out 12 hits, with 4 extra base hits including Malmgren’s triple in the 5^th.

Pavlovich led the hit parade with 2-4 and game leading 4 RBIs. Swenson, Jantscher, Thompson and T.J. Gulden had two hits each, and Swenson scored three of the four times he came to the plate.  Jantscher, Malmgren and Thompson each scored twice. 

Defensively, the Red Birds were flawless for the 2^nd game in a row. The lone single allowed by Thompson was erased in a “Strike-him-out – Throw-him-out” double play to end the 2^nd inning with Jantscher nailing Jon Waltz at 2^nd base on an attempted steal.

Next game for the Red Birds is Friday night at Gaylord.  A win puts the Red Birds into the state tournament.  A loss brings the Red Birds and the Islanders back to Chan for the deciding game of the series on Sunday, August 5^th at 6:00 PM.

If the Red Birds advance as a winner of this series, then we play at least one more game to determine seeding from the Region 6 C for placement at state.  The #1 seed from 6 C gets a bye in the first round of State tournament play beginning August 17^th at St. Cloud.

To get full game stats and to watch for further updates visit us on the website, www.chanredbirds.org.

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