The bats come alive and the Devils beat the Cold Spring Rockies for the second time in the regional tournament to advance to the state tournament.

 

The Diamond Devils were never behind in this game as they scored in the top of the first. With two outs, Adam Gregg singled and would score from first on a double hit by Andrew Engebretson.

 

The Rockies came back to tie the game in the bottom of the first. With two outs the Cold Spring’s Rick Burtzel singled Jim Kraus.

 

In the second inning the Devils scored four more times. With two outs in the inning, Ryan Dwyer had a base hit. Craig Hawkinson followed with a single. Matt Goodwald walked in his at bat to load the bases. KC Johnson hit in Ryan with a base hit. Adam Gregg was next up for the Devils and cleared the bases with a double to finish the scoring for the inning.

 

In the bottom half of the inning the Rockies scored their second run of the game when Mike Bell hit a sacrifice fly to score John Rossman from third.

 

The Devils added two more runs in the fourth. Matt Goodwald would reach first on a throwing error by the shortstop. KC Johnson was then hit by a pitch. Adam Gregg singled in Matt from second base. During Andrew Engebretson’s at bat, KC was picked off of second base. That would cost the Devils a run when Andrew hit a triple to straight away center to score Adam and round out the scoring in the inning.

 

In the fifth inning the Devils had a 7-2 lead when the Rockies scored three runs to get back into the game. The Rockies sent eight batters to the plate. The first six batters reached base via three singles, one walk and two fielder choices but a fly out to the catcher and ground out to the pitcher ended the inning and the scoring for Cold Spring.

 

The Devils added two insurance runs in the seventh. Andrew Engebretson in the first at bat in the inning hit the longest home run in the regional tournament when he turned on a pitch and drove it deep into the night sky. Brad Mazer followed with a double and would score on a single by Brandon Schliinz to finish the scoring for the game.

 

CJ Goodwald CJ Goodwald pitched an outstanding game for the Devils and beat the Rockies for the second time in a week. CJ pitched eight plus innings giving up five runs on nine singles, five walks while striking four on 124 pitches.

 

Paul Kunz entered the game with a runner on first and earned the save. Paul got the first batter he faced to fly out to right field but then gave up a base hit. Paul rebounded to get the next two batters to fly out to center and then right field to end the game and advance the Devils to the state tournament.