Region champs

The Sheyenne-New Rockford Black Sox are region champions for the first time in over two decades!

At the Region III Tournament in Steele, N.D., the Sox found themselves the last team standing after playing three days of excellent baseball, and have now punched their ticket to the state tournament in Jamestown.

For all three days at the region tournament, the Sox put on an excellent display of pitching, offense and defense on the baseball diamond, and were largely dominant en route to their region title.

Their run through the bracket began with a Monday morning matchup against the Kidder County Wolves on Monday, May 20.

Starting on the mound for the Sox was Connor Knatterud, and his stellar performance would set the tone for the Sox' entire pitching rotation.

For six innings he simply was lights out, giving up just three hits and striking out seven batters, while not allowing a single runner across home plate.

Meanwhile, the Sox' offense was pouring it on, and had amassed eight points going into the seventh and final inning.

Luke Yri relieved Knatterud on the mound for the final frame and the Wolves managed to score an unearned run, but it was too little too late, and the Sox took an 8-1 victory to start the tournament.

Up next for the Black Sox were their rivals from Carrington, a team that entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed and who'd defeated the Sox twice during the regular season.

On this occasion, however, the Cardinals' potent offense was kept at bay by Easton Simon, who started on the mound for the Black Sox on Tuesday, May 21.

Like Knatterud, Simon was able to keep the opposing lineup from establishing any momentum. In six innings of work, he allowed just five hits, walked nobody and struck out three batters, while allowing his opponents just a single run.

Meanwhile, the Sox offense was still humming along nicely, as if there hadn't been a break between this game and the day before.

The offense – led by Knatterud, Brody Weisenburger and Luke Yri – scored six quick runs in the first two innings, and later piled on five more in innings five and six.

With an 11-1 lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning, all Simon and their defense had to do was stop Carrington from scoring a run in the bottom of the frame.

Doing so would trigger the automatic 10-run mercy rule, and that's exactly what happened.

The dominant victory advanced SNR to the championship game on Wednesday, May 22, and after Lamoure-Litchville/Marion eliminated Carrington in the lower bracket, it would be the Loboes advancing to challenge SNR for the Region 3 crown.

However, because they're coming from the lower bracket, the Loboes would have to take down SNR twice if they wanted to advance to the state tournament.

They got the job done in game no. 1 of the day, as the Sox' offense was silenced for the first time all tournament.

Keaton Cudworth delivered a solid outing on the mound for SNR, only allowing one earned run and one unearned run. But with the Sox' offense silent, the Loboes only needed those two runs to take a 2-0 victory.

Thankfully for the Black Sox, game no. 2 was a different story entirely, as their offense lashed out and scored three quick runs in the first inning.

And this time it was Skye Kramlich's turn to enjoy an excellent outing on the mound for SNR.

In seven innings of work he allowed just five hits and two unearned runs, and the defense behind him continued to play solid as they had all tournament.

When the Sox added five more runs to their lead in the third inning, the feeling of a tournament victory was suddenly palpable.

SNR kept it together though, and didn't let their excitement or nerves stop them from closing out the game.

And after a few more innings of dominant pitching and excellent defense, the Sox took a 9-2 victory and finally claimed their first region championship in 24 years.

Kramlich was deservedly named player of the game, and in a radio interview following the game, Black Sox head coach Dave Skogen had a lot to say about the young freshman who helped deliver a championship.

"What a bulldog," said Skogen. "That's why we put him in that spot. He's a 107 pound wrestler, scrappy as heck, and that mentality he's got is why he was there and boy did he show up."

In the award ceremony following the game, Skogen accepted the Region 3 Coach of the Year Award.

Knatterud, Cudworth and Bradyn Collier were also named to the Region 3 All-Region Baseball team.

Alex Weisenburger, meanwhile, accepted the Eric Hewitt Iron First Award for his ability to fight through a devastating ACL injury and be an important contributor for the Black Sox.

The Sox will travel to the Jack Brown Stadium in Jamestown for the Class B State Tournament on Thursday, May 30 where they will take on the Des Lacs-Burlington Lakers in the second game of the day around 2 p.m.