The Nisswa Lightning suffered their first loss of the playoffs when they were edged by the Lastrup Lakers 8-6 in the Region 8C playoffs on Sunday, July 27.
Lastrup automatically qualifies for the Class C state tournament while Nisswa will play Freeport at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, in Upsala.
The Lightning assumed a 4-1 lead over Lastrup going into the bottom of the sixth.when the Lakers rallied with seven runs behind three hits and three walks. Key hits were a two-run single by Jason Sadlovsky and a two-run double by Chad Weiss.
Nisswa cut the deficit to 8-5 when Tyler Wittwer walked to force in a run in the seventh, and then added a final run on back-to-back doubles by Wittwer and Morgan Shepherd. The game ended when the Lastrup centerfielder made a diving catch on Paul Jenkins' fly ball.
Winning pitcher Scott Janson, who allowed five runs in 6 ⅔ innings. Reggie Litke pitched the final 2 ⅓ innings for the save. Brett Cloutier started on the mound for Nisswa and allowed one run in four innings. Losing pitcher Brett Jenkins surrendered seven runs in 1 ⅔ innings. Jason Roepke didn't allow a run in 2 ⅓ innings.
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Luke Schumer and Shepherd each had two hits while Roepke, Wittwer and Adam Hardy each doubled. Wittwer added two RBI while Brandon Lochner and Litke each had two hits.
Nisswa 11, St. Stephen 0
On Saturday, July 26, the Lightning shutout the Steves in seven innings as winning pitcher Kyle Schaible allowed just two hits in going the distance. He didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning.
Nisswa assumed a 3-0 lead early when Jeremiah Piepkorn belted a two-run homer and and Roepke added a solo shot. The Lightning added three more runs in the third on Piepkorn's RBI single and Hardy's two-run homer. Piepkorn added a two-run double in the fourth to make it 8-0. Nisswa added its final runs on Roepke's three-run shot in the sixth.
Piepkorn was 3-3 with five RBI while Roepke was 2-4 with four RBI. Adam Hardy and Brett Jenkins were each 2-3 while Schumer scored three times.
