It has been nearly a week and a half since the Owatonna Huskies last took to the field at Dartts Park for a home game. Since then, the Huskies tied Red Wing at Target Field and picked up a pair of road wins over Faribault and Winona.
Despite a close, non-conference battle with Bloomington Jefferson, the Owatonna bats came up in the clutch during the bottom of the sixth to help lead the Huskies to a 5-2 win over the Jaguars and their third straight victory in a row.
The visiting Jaguars took the initial lead thanks to a sac fly in the top of the first inning. Owatonna answered back to take the lead in the bottom of the second inning.
A bobble on a bunt from senior Nathan Theis provided an opportunity for fellow senior Noah Truelson to dodge a tag and score from third. The Jaguars had a tough time fielding a grounder up the middle from senior Owen Beyer and the speed of junior Blake Davison was enough to round third and beat the throw home.
Neither team were able to bring in runners over the next three innings, so the Huskies stayed in front with their 2-1 lead.
Owatonna had a chance to drive in a couple of runs during a two-out rally in the bottom of the third. A walk for Michael Reinardy, a single by Connor Wiese and a walk for Andy Mitchell loaded up the bases. A line drive from Ethan Armstrong was tracked down in left field to get the Jaguars out of the inning.
Despite committing a couple of errors through the game, the Huskies had some great fielding to hold Jefferson off the scoreboard until the top of the sixth.
Tayte Berg had to track down a couple of deep fly balls by the left field warning track. Truelson prevented a hard grounder past first, got a force out at the bag and prevented a run from scoring in the top of the sixth. Even when the Jaguars did eventually tie the game, Owen Beyer made a big leaping catch in center field to hold off any more additional runs to score.
Armstrong was the one who set the tone of the bottom of the inning by fouling off a couple balls and battling back from a 1-2 count to draw a walk on a full count.
Theis laid down a bunt and reached first with the throw pulling the first baseman off the bag. Beyer joined them on the base path by drawing a four-pitch walk to load the bases with no outs.
In a prime position to reclaim the lead, senior third baseman Mitch Seykora brought in Armstrong on a sac fly to right field. Berg followed him up by driving the ball into deep center for a two-RBI double and giving Owatonna the momentum with a 5-2 lead.
Having already pitched six strong innings, junior Tanner Smith forced two pop ups to right and a ground out to close things out. Smith recorded two strikeouts while only allowing four hits, two walks and two runs in his seven innings on the mound.
Wiese led the Huskies with two hits. Theis, Beyer and Berg all recorded one hit each. Berg recorded a team-high two RBIs, while Theis, Beyer and Seykora recorded an RBI each.
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