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In the VFW District Playoffs on Saturday at Cotter Field, the third-seeded Buddies split their two games against sixth-seeded Rochester Century and 11th-seeded Red Wing, creating an interesting scenario for today.
The Buddies, Century and Red Wing are 1-1. Red Wing and Century will play at 11 a.m. today at Cotter Field and the winner will play the Buddies afterward at around 1:30 p.m. The Buddies have a bye because they are the higher seed.
“It’s single elimination the rest of the way,” Winona coach Matt O’Brien said. “It’s do or die.”
On Saturday, Winona defeated Century 4-1 in the first game and fell to Red Wing 7-2 in the second game.
“Once we got that first win, we kind of just tried to coast a little bit,” O’Brien said. “We just sat back and thought we could just turn it on. We dug ourselves a deep hole.
“As a team we were not into it,” he said. “We just weren’t ready to play.”
In Game 1, the Buddies were led by the arm of Jordan Ossefoort. Ossefoort dominated on the mound, going five innings, allowing five hits, striking out nine and walking none. Seven of his strikeouts came in the first three innings.
With the game scoreless in the bottom of the third, Winona’s Tommy Mullen led off the inning with a walk. Two batters later Brandon Beech broke the tie with a home run to left field. The Buddies scored all four of their runs in the inning.
Jared Gilbertson picked up right where Ossefoort left off on the mound, striking out five and walking one over the last two innings to pick up the save.
“First game we played real well,” O’Brien said. “We got a really good performance from Jordan Ossefoort on the mound. He did a great job attacking. Every time he let guys on base, he bared down and really attacked the hitters.
“Jared Gilbertson came in relief and did the same thing,” he said. “Just put pressure on the hitters. We needed that first game.”
Game 2 didn’t quite go that well for Winona. Winona had seven hits but left nine runners on base. Red Wing scored a combined five runs in the fifth and sixth innings to pull away.
Steven Tofstad went 4-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI and Beech went 1-for-3 with a run scored for the Buddies.
“In the second game, we didn’t come to play,” O’Brien said. “Hats off to Red Wing, their pitcher did a great job of attacking and throwing strikes. You just can’t come out and win one and then take the next game off.”
