Amateur Baseball: Bluffton runs streak to six; wrap up regular season with wins over Henning and New York Mills

Bluffton continued to make a late-season assault in the Hi-10 standings with victories over Henning and New York Mills to wrap up league play in the final weekend of the regular season. The doubleheader sweep of the Giants on Friday night and the heat-shorten victory over the Millers on Sunday improved the Braves record to 11-8 overall and 9-5 in the Hi-10.

Marc Sweere brought his big lumber to the plate against Henning on Friday night, as the Braves’ power hitter smashed three homers and drove in six runs in the 5-1 and 11-1 doubleheader sweep of the host Giants.

Sweere highlighted Bluffton’s two-run fourth with a solo shot over the right-field fence as the Braves were limited to just three hits in the first game. Giant starting pitcher Brandon DeBauche accounted for two runs when he issued 10 walks and Kurt Mursu drove in another run with a sacrifice fly.

Henning scored twice in the bottom of the seventh on a two-run single by Torgerson.
Bluffton rattled off 13 hits in the nightcap with Sweere once again providing the power by going 4-for-4 at the plate with a double and two round-trippers. After Bluffton went ahead 1-0 in the first, Henning answered with Chris Wilke’s RBI single to the game in the second inning.

Sweere put Bluffton ahead to stay with a solo shot in the third and the Braves erupted for six runs in the fourth to put the game out of reach of the Giants. Dykhoff unleashed the floodgates with his no outs, bases-loaded sacrifice fly to left field, Sweere followed with a single and Dustin Geiser drove in a run with a base hit. Kevin Tumberg unloaded the bases with a three-run single and back-to-back walks quickly reloaded the bases, Jonathan Goeden capped the Braves scoring frenzy with a RBI fielders choice.

Sweere highlighted the fifth with a two-run shot and three consecutive walks in the sixth set the stage for Cody Gieser’s bases-loaded RBI single that ended the game via the ten-run rule.

Dustin Geiser secured the mound win by limiting the Giants to four hits and striking out 10.

Bluffton wrapped up the regular season by defeating rival New York Mills 7-5 in a shortened afternoon game due to the excessive heat that had gripped the region all week.

A Kyle Gieser double and Najjar single put the host Braves up 2-0 early, but the Millers would score once in the top of the third and tacked on two more runs in the fifth to go ahead 3-2.

Bluffton answered in the home half of the fifth with five runs. Najjar led off the frame with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a single from Kyle Geiser. Three wild pitches and a walk scored Najjar and found Geiser at third and Dykhoff at second. A Miller error, followed by a double by Mursu capped the Bluffton scoring.

New York Mills rallied in the top of the sixth to pull within two runs behind a two-out RBI double from Ted Rohr, who later scored on a RBI single from Michael Baune.

Tumberg went the distance for the win for Bluffton. The righty gave up nine hits and struck out seven. Kyle Geiser led the Braves at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double and RBI.

Josh Hendrickx took the mound loss for the Millers despite going 3-for-4 with two ribbies.

Bluffton will host Perham at 6 p.m. Friday for the first round of the Hi-10 playoffs.

Bluffton at Henning on July 15
Braves 5, Giants 2 (First Game) (7 innings)
Bluffton 0 0 0 2 0 1 2—5 3 0
Henning 0 0 0 0 0 0 2—2 3 2
WP: Kyle Dykhoff (Bluffton) 7IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 8K
LP: Brandon DeBauche (Henning) 7IP, 3H, 5R, 2ER, 10BB, 4K
Bluffton—Dustin Geiser 1-2, R; Marc Sweere 1-2, 2R, HR, 2RBI; Kurt Mursu 1-2, R, RBI
Henning—Troy Thorson 1-3, R; Dan Johnson 1-2, R; Torgerson 1-3, 2RBI

Braves 11, Giants 1 (Second Game) (6 innings)
Henning 0 1 0 0 0 0—1 4 1
Bluffton 1 0 1 6 2 1—11 13 0
WP: Dustin Geiser (Bluffton) 6IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 10K
LP: Cody Nordick (Henning)
Henning—Thorson 1-3; Johnson 1-3, R; Chris Wilke 1-2, RBI; Blake Ricks 1-1
Bluffton—David Najjar 1-2, 2R; Cody Geiser 3-4, R, RBI; Dykhoff 0-2, R, RBI; Sweere 4-4, 3R, 2B, (2)HR, 3RBI; Dustin Geiser 1-4, R, RBI; Kevin Tumberg 2-3, R, 3RBI; Jake Seelhammer 1-2, R; Jonathan Goeden 1-2, RBI

New York Mills at Bluffton on July 17
Braves 7, Millers 5 (7 innings)
NYM 0 0 1 0 2 2 0 0—5 9 5
Bluffton 1 1 0 0 5 0 0—7 7 0
WP: Kevin Tumberg (Bluffton) 7IP, 9H, 5R, 4ER, 4BB, 7K
LP: Josh Hendrickx (NYM) 5.1IP, 5H, 4R, 1ER, 3BB, 6K
New York Mills—Michael Baune 1-2, R, RBI; Hendrickx 3-4, 2RBI; Jason Burg 2-4, R; Jarrod Norton 1-3, R; Ted Rohr 2-3, 2R, 2B, RBI
Bluffton—Najjar 1-3, 2R, RBI; Kyle Geiser 3-4, R, 2B, RBI; Nick Goeden 1-2, R; Kurt Mursu 1-3, 2B, 2RBI; Jake Seelhammer 1-2, R