Postseason baseball gets started at Legion Field

The North A District baseball tournament got started on Thursday morning at Legion Field with a pair of games. In the opening game of the tournament, the Tri County Cardinals won, 6-5, against the Lethbridge Miners. Then later in the day, the Lewistown Redbirds defeated the Medicine Hat Knights, 10-0, in five innings.

The Cardinals entered the tournament as the American No. 3 seed while the Miners were the Canadian No. 2 seed. The Cardinals took the lead early as they scored two runs in the top of the first inning. However, the Miners responded quickly with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game.

In the second, the Miners used their momentum to score another run to take a 3-2 lead. But the Cardinals responded in the third as they scored another pair of runs to take a 4-3 lead. The Tri County defense also played well over the next three innings as the Miners were unable to score a run during that time frame.

After Tri County scored another run in the fifth to extend the lead to 5-3, the Miners found some offense again. In the bottom of the sixth, the Miners were able to score a run to cut the deficit to one run. Then after Tri County scored again in the top of the seventh, the Miners scored in the bottom of the seventh to cut their deficit to 7-6. But the Cardinals were able to record the third out of the inning to secure the win.

"I think we started off really well. We came in with a good mentality," Tri County head coach Bryce Watterud said. "Our offense was going and our defense and our pitching was outstanding."

Later Thursday afternoon, the American No. 1 seed Lewistown Redbirds defeated the Canadian No. 4 seed Medicine Hat Knights. The Redbirds showed why they were a top seed in the tournament as they scored three runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead.

Throughout the game, the Redbirds just slowly pulled away. In the second, the Redbirds scored another four runs to stretch their lead to 7-0. Then in the third, another pair of runs gave Lewistown a 9-0 lead.

Heading to the fifth, the Redbirds had a chance to close it out early. Even after the Knights recorded their first hit of the game in the top of the inning, the Redbirds continued to hold them scoreless. Then in the bottom of fifth after working his way to third base, a Redbird scored on a dropped ball to give Lewistown a 10-0 lead to end the game early by run rule.

"We did exactly what we wanted to do: come out and establish ourselves at the plate," Lewistown head coach Scott Sparks said about the win. "We can't be any happier than how things started for us."

With their wins, the Tri County Cardinals and Lewistown Redbirds advance in the tournament to face each other. As they both advance, both teams will look to carry on their strong play to open the tournament.

"(We got to) keep doing what we're doing on defense and offense," Watterud said. "If we just keep doing that, we'll be good."

The Tri County Cardinals and Lewistown Redbirds will play today at 4 p.m. at Legion Field. Meanwhile, the Lethbridge Miners and the Medicine Hat Knights played in an elimination game this morning.

Tri County 6, Lethbridge 5

TC 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 - 6 7 4

LETH 2 1 0 0 0 1 1 - 5 11 2

Lewistown 10, Medicine Hat 0

MH 0 0 0 0 0 X X - 0 1 2

LEW 3 4 2 0 1 X X - 10 9 0