Chanhassen celebrated the 4th of July with a come-from-behind victory over the visiting Winthrop Eagles with a 4-3 win in 9 innings.

Tony Morengo hit an 8th inning HomeRun over the RF fence to plate Cary McLaughlin ahead of him to tie the game at 3-3. Then following an intentional walk to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 9th, Cary McLaughlin drilled a single to right-center to score Kyle Kemble with the game winner.

Line Score:

Winthrop      000 012 000 3 - 8 - 2 LOB 11;

Chanhassen   010 000 021 4 - 6 - 4 LOB 8

Chanhassen opened the scoring in the 2nd inning.  Tony Marengo was HBP and advanced to 3rd on two wild pitches by Eagles hurler, Scott Palmer.  Marengo then scored on a T.J. Gulden SAC fly to center field.

RedBirds starter, Adam Heitz, kept the Eagles in check for the first 4 innings scattering 3 hits and getting 4 Ks, three with called 3rd strikes. 

In the top of the 5th, Eagles 1st baseman, Billy Melius reached 1st on an infield hit to shortstop, advancing to second on the errant throw.  After a walk to put men on 1st and 2nd, Eagles 3rd Baseman, Glenn Peters, dropped a bunt to sacrifice the runners ahead, but a wild throw to 1st sent the ball down the RF line and Melius scored easily for an unearned run.  A groundout to 3rd and two fly balls to CF Jeff Pavlovich ended the threat for the Eagles leaving two runners in scoring position.

With 2 out in the bottom of the 5th, Pavlovich lined a single to right center and stole 2nd easily, advancing to 3rd as the throw skipped into center field.  It looked like the Redbirds would retake the lead, but Adam Heitz struck out to leave Pavlovich just 90 feet away from home.

The Eagles opened the top of the 6th with Palmer's single down the 3rd base line.  Heitz got C Pat O'Malley to strike out swinging.  Then DH/Mgr, Ben Melius lined a sharp single to left center.  A walk to Billy Melius loaded the bases.  Heitz then got LF Mike Willegal for his 6th K and it looked like the RedBirds would escape the inning.  But, Peters lined a 3-2 pitch to left field scoring Palmer.  CF James Panning then hit a grounder to SS Zach Neubauer that handcuffed him and Ben Melius scored from 3rd.  A fly out to RF Bobby Krzmarzick left the RedBirds trailing 3-1.

Neubauer moved to the mound in relief of Heitz to open the 8th inning and got the Eagles with a grounder to 2nd, a walk and sacrifice bunt, and a soft comebacker to himself to complete the top half of the frame.

McLaughlin opened the bottom of the 8th with a walk and stole second easily.  After Nick Brenner struck out, Tony Marengo drilled a fastball over the RF wall to tie the score at 3-3.  This homerun, the first by a RedBird this season, brought a celebration from the more than 300 in attendance and earned Free Popcorn at the concession stand.

Zach Neubauer singled to CF and the Eagles lifted Palmer, moving 2nd baseman Dan Anderson, to the mound in relief.  A fly ball to CF and a gounder to the pitcher ended the inning with the score knotted at 3.

In the 9th, SS Chad Elston drove a single down the RF line to open the inning.  But Neubauer got Anderson to swing at a 3rd strike, then threw out Palmer at 1st on a chopper back to the mound, and O'Malley popped out to C Zach Swenson to end the threat leaving Elston at 2nd.

In the home half of the 9th, Kyle Kemble lifted a pop up that P Anderson let bounce out of his glove. Pavlovich then dropped a perfect bunt that Anderson fielded but threw wild to 1st advancing Kemble to 3rd and Pavlovich to 2nd.  Following a strategy discussion on the mound, the Eagles walked Heitz to load the bases with nobody out.   McLaughlin stepped to the plate and lined the second pitch over the 2nd baseman's head into right center scoring Kemble with the winning run.  The players mobbed Kemble at the plate and McLaughlin after he touched 1st for the GWRBI.

Neubauer got the win with his 2 innings of work.  Heitz was solid on the mound with 6 Ks and just 2 BB and stranding 7 Eagle runners in scoring position.

Elston was 2-5 for the Eagles on a pair of singles. Palmer worked 7 and a third innings giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and 5 BB, getting 8 Ks.  Anderson took the loss for the Eagles allowing only one hit by Cary McLaughlin.  But his own two errors in the bottom of the 9th gave the victory to the RedBirds.

Pavlovich was 2-5 for the RedBirds, and Tony Marengo had a single and the game-tying homerun as he went 2-4 with 2 RBIs.  The RedBirds left 8 on base, 4 in scoring position.

The RedBirds play at home on Tuesday, July 6th, hosting the Gaylord Islanders for a 7:30 PM start at Storm/RedBird stadium.