Farming­- After a season of playing catch-up and small ball the Spring Hill Chargers started hitting the ball and hitting it hard. The Chargers had 15 hits Saturday, Aug. 10 in their 11-2 win over New Munich in the final state-qualifying round of the Region 15C tournament. Later that day they had 11 hits in a 4-2 win over Richmond in the playback semi-finals. The Chargers finished the tournament as the second seed to Lake Henry. Elrosa is the third seed and Richmond the fourth seed. Spring Hill last appeared in the state tournament in 2011. The other three qualified last year.

 

Spring Hill 4, Richmond 2 / Farming- “ Our offense starting to hit like we know it can,” said Jamie Terres. “We have guys right now stepping up, and the bottom of the order has stepped up huge. It is heck of job by the whole team.”
 

Terres was no small part of that attack in the win over Richmond. His first inning single gave Spring Hill an early 1-0 lead. In the seventh inning his home run broke a 1-1 tie and seemed to wake-up the Chargers. The Charges, on a single by Grant Schoenberg and double by Kyle Bertram added two more runs in the eighth inning. The excitement didn’t end there. Richmond, which also qualified for the state meet, rallied in the ninth inning and threatened to take the lead. With two out it loaded the bases. Brent Ruegemer, who had seven hits in Richmond’s two games on Saturday singled in Dusty Adams. The following batter drilled a line drive toward the left-center gap.
 

“It was on of those hit right at you,” said Terres, who snared the shot for the final out. “Thank God it came down.” The catch gave starter Chris Spanier a complete game victory. The win sent Spring Hill into the semi-final game against Elrosa. Richmond had defeated New London-Spicer 11-6 earlier in the day.
 

Spring Hill-11 N. Munich-2 / Farming- Shawn Schoenberg led the way for the Chargers in the final elimination round of tournament earlier on Saturday. He put Spring Hill up 2-0 with a two-run home run. In the fifth inning his second two-run home run broke a 2-2 tie. In the seventh he doubled in a run and later scored in that inning.

 

“I just got pitches that were left up a little bit, that helped,” said Schoenberg. “But everybody hit well. We had 15 hits in the game.”
 

In the eighth inning the Chargers batted around as Grant Schoenberg, Bertram and Eric Terres opened the inning with singles. Cody Eichers and Corey Schoenberg had RBI singles as the Chargers scored four runs.
 

“We just went up there and put the bat on the ball,” said Shawn Schoenberg. “If you hit the ball stuff will drop in.”
 

The Chargers also had solid pitching performances from Matt Imdieke, drafted from Meire Grove and relief pitcher Corey Schoenberg. They gave up 12 hits, but scattered them across nine innings. Chad Funk, who had two hits, scored both New Munich runs. Adam Stangler, who had three hits, doubled twice and had two RBIs in the game.
 

The loss ended New Munich’s season. Nick Stangler was drafted for state play by Elrosa.
 

Spring Hill 9, Elrosa 6 / Farming- The Chargers remained hot winning the semi-final game of the regional 9-6 Sunday, Aug. 11. Grant Schoenberg had the timely hits in the game giving Spring Hill a 1-0 lead in the second with an RBI single and pushing across their last two runs in the fifth with a two-run single in the fifth. Spring Hill took a 9-0 lead after five innings, but got no more runs as Aaron Vogt faced only 10 batters in the final three innings. Elrosa also came to life in the final two innings and twice forced Spring Hill to change pitchers. In the eighth inning Matt Schmitz, who was four-forfour in the game, doubled as Elrosa rallied for three runs. In the ninth inning he singled to keep another three-run rally alive. The Chargers defense turned three double plays in the game. The last was the game ending play. Brad Terres earned the win, with Brent Terres and Eric Terres pitching in relief. Eric Terres earned the save.

 

Lake Henry 11, Spring Hill 1/ Farming- The Lakers used home runs to score all their runs in the 11-1 win in the 15C championship. Jason Kampsen hit a grandslam; Josh Kampsen had a two-run and three-run home run, Shane Kampsen a two-run home run and Nathan Meyer a two-run home run. The latter gave the Lakers a seven-inning win.

 

Spring Hill’s Jamie Terres scored on Shawn Schoenberg’s RBI single.

 

Draftees

 

Following the regional the four teams advancing to state were able to draft two pitchers each. Drafted for state play were:

 

Lake Henry: Mike Melvin, Atwater, and Austen Hadley, Regal.

 

Spring Hill: Justin Schroeder, Atwater, and Aaron Savelkoul, Paynesville.

 

Elrosa: Chris Braaten, Norway Lake-Sunburg, and Nick Stangler, New Munich.

 

Richmond: Kevin Soine, New London-Spicer, and Chris Beier, Regal. The total attendance across the two weekends of the regional was over 3,500.

(Melrose Beacon)