'Proud': Blue Jay baseball places fourth at state tourney

Jun. 3—FARGO, N.D. — A storybook season came to an end on Saturday.

The Jamestown High School baseball team fell to Wahpeton 6-3 in the third-place game of the 2023 Class A State Baseball Tournament to solidify themselves as the fourth-best team in all of Class A North Dakota prep baseball.

At the beginning of the season, head coach Jack Bowman said that the Blue Jays flew under the radar in the spring of 2022 — something that was not possible with the talent returning for the Jays this season.

Jamestown has 10 seniors on the roster who have been contributing to the program for most of the last three years.

Mason Lunzman, Jackson Walters, Max Fronk and Payton Hochhalter earned All-WDA honors at the WDA Tournament.

Lunzman was selected as the Co-WDA Senior Athlete of the Year last weekend and on Saturday he was announced as the state's Senior Athlete of the Year in Class A baseball.

The 2023 Senior Athlete of the Year finished out his career with a .325 batting average, He drove in 14 batters, a pair of triples and three doubles.

He threw 661 pitches across 42.1 innings. He's 7-0 on the mound. He has allowed 12 runs — four earned — on 23 hits. He walked eight and retired 53 in the box. His ERA reads an almost unfathomable .661.

A key piece no doubt — but only a piece of an incredible team.

The squad finished the year at 18-6 overall and wound up earning the program's first-ever regular-season title. The Jays were the No. 1 seed entering the West Region Tournament.

Jamestown ended up the WDA's No. 3 seed entering the Class A State Tournament and pulled off an amazing 3-1, no-hitter, win against second-seeded West Fargo in Thursday's quarterfinal.

Friday marked one of the Jays' hardest losses all year.

The squad fell 2-1 to Fargo North in the state semifinals sending them to the third-place game against the Huskies a crew that came in as the top-seeded team out of the Eastern Dakota Conference.

The Blue Jays kept the Huskies scoreless through the first couple of frames until Jayden King emptied the bases with a line drive hit out to left to make it 3-0 Huskies.

On the next play, Riley Thimjon reached on an error scoring King.

Thimjon and King drove in two more in the bottom of the fifth to extend the lead to 6-0.

But the Jays are just too good to get shut out.

In the sixth, Ethan Gall got the first hit of his state tournament — a double slapped out to right field. On the next play, Mason Lunzman sent Gall to third and got himself to first on an error by second baseman Jack Rittenour.

Gall and Lunzman scored on a Max Fronk groundout to make it 6-2 Huskies.

In the top of the seventh, Wahpeton pitcher Caden Hockert walked Lunzman to score the Jays' final run of the season.

"The story of the tournament is we did not hit enough to support our pitching," Bowman said. "Two runs on five hits in today's game, when we did not have our best stuff on the mound, did us in today. We made a bit of noise in the 7th but ended the game with the bases loaded."

Ethan Gall was the Jays' leading hitter on Saturday. He went 2-3 at the plate with a double. Lunzman had an RBI and Fronk was .250 with a run driven in. Jacob Webster ended his high school career with a hit in the top of the seventh.

Thomas Newman and Adam Sortland commanded the hill on Saturday. Newman threw 4.1 innings, he allowed six runs on six hits. He stuck out four. Sortland allowed one hit but didn't allow any runs.

"It is never fun to end a season short of a title, but I'm proud of what this team accomplished this year," Bowman said. "I thanked them for setting the example for the younger players coming up. Although my season is done, the boys start legion play next week. I wish them well as they chase a Legion championship."

Wahpeton 6, Jamestown 3

JHS 000 002 1 — 3 4 2

WAH 004 020 X — 6 7 2

JHS: Thomas Newman, Adam Sortland (5); WAH — C Hockert. W — Hockert, L — Newman.

JHS — Newman (4.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K). Max Fronk 1-4, RBI; Mason Lunzman RBI; Jacob Webster 1-2; Ethan Gall 2-3, 2B.

WAH — Caden Kappes 2-4; Gavin Schroeder 1-2; Jackson Fliflet 1-3; Jayden King 1-2, 3 RBI; Riley Thimjon 1-3, RBI; Jack Rittenour 1-3.