Saints Open Postseason With Victory Over Braves

By Ben Camp, St. Peter Herald (7-27-22)

In the first postseason matchup between the St. Peter Saints and the Le Sueur Braves since 2017, the visiting Saints bats were on fire, as they scored four runs in a single inning two separate times to earn a 12-7 win over the Braves. Both Jovan Rodriguez and Josh Robb went yard for St. Peter to power the offense to the win, despite a five-run rally in the eighth and ninth innings from Le Sueur.

The victory puts the Saints in line to travel to the River Valley League's top seeded Jordan Brewers with a trip to the regional tournament as the prize, while the Braves will enter the consolation bracket to do battle with the Henderson Tigers at home. Both games have first-pitch scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Friday night.

There was no delay to the action as leadoff hitter Sam Wenner, of St. Peter, reached base with a single and stole second, before being advanced on a flyout and scoring on a fielder's choice in the top of the first. Le Sueur had an answer right away, though, as the first three hitters, Burke Nesbit, Tyler Pengilly and Tristen O'Brien each found gaps in the defense with hits into the outfield. O'Brien's was good for an RBI double, and two batters later, Pengilly scored on a sacrifice fly from Ryan McPartland.

The bats went quiet for the next couple of innings, as the defenses for both team made all the right plays, including a couple of beautiful picks from Brave's shortstop Tommy Gupton, but the Saints went back on a roll in the fourth. A walk from Austin Pinke got things started for St. Peter before a pair of hits and an pair of errors allowed the Saints to plate four runs and take a 5-2 lead.

In the top of the fifth, Josh Robb crushed a two-out homer to extend the lead and the Saints earned another run in the seventh and four more in the eighth, punctuated by Jovan Rodriguez's two-run homerun, before the Braves would be able to respond. Le Sueur scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth and two in the ninth with O'Brien scoring two of them, but there just wasn't enough firepower to overcome the deficit as the Saints earned the 12-7 victory.