Bluffton's amateur baseball team carried a four-game winning streak into the Hi-10 playoffs last weekend. After the diamond dust finally settled Sunday evening, the Braves had locked up a berth in the Region 14C baseball tournament with wins over New York Mills and Perham.
The second-seeded Braves opened the playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the third seed New York Mills Millers Saturday.
Brave starter Cody Geiser carried a no-hitter until well into the ninth inning. With one out and a runner on, Miller Tony Meech sent a long ball that cleared the left field fence, spoiling Geiser's no-hit bid and pulled New York Mills within a run.
The Millers couldn't find any more late-inning heroics as Geiser caught the next Miller batter looking at a called third strike and forced a fly out to center for the last out.
The Millers scored first in the game when Jeramie Weller, after reaching base on a walk, scored on a wild pitch to give Mills a 1-0 lead. The Braves answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a Jake Seelhammer two-run single. Bluffton scored one more run in the third inning to lead 4-1.
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Geiser pitched a complete game and gave up three runs on two hits and struck out five. He also led the Braves offensively, going 2-for-4 along with Marc Sweere.
Meech took the loss for the Millers, throwing eight innings and giving up four runs on 10 hits, while striking out six.
The win over Mills pitted Bluffton against the number one seed Perham Pirates Sunday evening in Dent.
The Braves scored three runs in the top of the third inning and then tallied six more in the seventh on their way to a 9-3 victory. Bluffton was aided by seven uncharacteristic Pirate errors in the contest.
Perham was able to tally one run in the third, fifth and ninth innings as the Pirates scattered six hits off Brave starter Dustin Geiser. Bluffton managed 10 hits off three Pirate pitchers with Jon Kotaska being saddled with the loss.
The win secured a spot in the Region 14C tournament for the Braves with either Perham or New York Mills joining them. The Pirates will play the Millers in the elimination game on Friday night with the winner playing at 1:30 p.m. in Bluffton on Sunday for the Hi-10 championship.
