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The LeJetz lost a pair of games — 7-5 to the Rochester Redhawks and 7-3 to the Rochester Patriots — in the First District playoffs.
Winona was trailing 6-1 in the first game to the Redhawks (22-5) after Tony Nierman hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning. Kelby Halling got Rochester on the board in the fifth with a solo home run.
“They had five runs on four hits, including the three-run home run,” LeJetz coach Gary Hoeppner said. “The three-run blow was really the difference in the game. Basically two pitches was it. Matt Wolfe pitched an OK game, he just left two pitches up.”
The score was 7-1 after six and a half innings, before the LeJetz (21-14) made a run with a four runs in the bottom of the seventh, including a two-run single by Ryan Speltz.
That, however, was as close as Winona could get and it moved to the losers’ bracket to face the Patriots (29-11).
In the second game, Rochester’s Ben Moen went all nine innings, striking out four and walking none. He was also 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Rochester scored a run in each of the first four innings. Winona tied the score 3-3 after the top half of the fourth inning, but Rochester scored four unanswered after that.
The LeJetz, who finished the season 0-3 against the Redhawks and 2-2 against the Patriots this season, committed four errors in each game.
“We can play with both teams if we can play flawless baseball, but we didn’t do that today,” said Hoeppner, who, after 24 years coaching, had taken his team to the state tournament twice (1992 and 2001). “They took advantage of our errors. We kicked the ball around a little bit today, in the second game, especially.”
