The Spencer baseball team avenged a pair of regular season losses to Storm Lake with a 4-3 win Friday night at Storm Lake in the opening round of the class 3A baseball tournament.
The Tigers plated the winning run on a wild pitch in the top of the 7th inning. They scored the first run of the game in the top of the 3rd and the Tornadoes answered right back in the bottom of the inning on a Jake Eddie RBI single that scored Hunter DeMey.
Spencer extended the lead in the top of the 5th inning on a Devin Dirkx two-run single to make it 3-1. The Tornadoes would plate a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game at 3-3 and had a runner at 2nd base with two outs. Dirkx would then relievestarter Reid Tigges and got a strike out to end the inning.
After the Tigers went ahead in the top of the 7th Storm Lake got a leadoff single from Trevor Turner. Edgar Barriero would put down a sacrifice bunt to put him in scoring position. Dirkx though would get the next two batters on a flyout and a groundout and the game was over.
Spencer out-hit Storm Lake 7-4 in the game. Jake Eddie suffered the loss giving up four earned runs on seven hits, he struck out seven and walked two. DeMey pitched one inning and struck out two.
Dirkx would get the win pitching 1 1/3 of scoreless relief.
Spencer is now 18-8 and will play at M-O-C Floyd Valley in the sub-state semi-final Monday night at Orange City. Storm Lake concludes the year with a record of 19-11. Austin Gaffney, Drew Taylor, and Sam Dvergsten played their final game in a Tornado uniform.
Head coach Ben Seaman announced earlier in the season that this year would be his last and Storm Lake radio spoke with him after a tough season ending loss, click below to listen.
