SLP Orioles Shut Out Mpls. South Tigers

Johnny Sorenson was "Johnny on the Spot" Friday night, combining with Shea Pekarek on a one hitter and striking out seven batters to lead the St. Louis Park Orioles to a 10-0 win over the Minneapolis South Tigers in an elimination round game in the 2017 Section 6AAAA Baseball Tournament at Derrick Keller Field at Dakota Park.

The Tigers would get their only hit when lead off batter Roy Palmer singled to start the game.  After Jack Hennen reached base on an error by Pekarek and Ben Murray hit into a fielders choice, Sorenson would strike out the next two batters to prevent further damage.

As for the Orioles offense, they would open the scoring in the bottom of the second inning on an RBI double by Jacob Stillman that scored Luke Mobley.  St. Louis Park sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth as Sorenson, who retired 11 straight Tigers, would score on a wild pitch from Dayne Schweiger.  Pekarek would single home Stillman for the second run and Zach Listiak and Pekarek would score on an error.  Mobley would hit an RBI single to score Riley Dvorak and the Orioles would increase their lead to six.

Sorenson would begin the top of the fifth with a pair of strikeouts.  He got Isaias Bruggeman-Cohen on a swinging strike out and pinch hitter Will Danaher on a called third strike.  But he would give up back to back walks to Ryan Skow and Isaac Staichez that would bring St. Louis Park head coach Brian Kelly out of the dugout and he would give the ball to Pekarek who got Palmer to hit into a force play to end the top of the fifth inning.

The Orioles would clinch the win in the bottom of the sixth that started with singles by Connor Cornell and Pekarek and Dvorak would hit a two run single to score both the runners.  Dvorak would cross the plate on Julien Shadle's double.  Ian Sandbo would run for Shadle and Brent Ryan would lay down a squeeze bunt that enabled Sandbo to head home uncontested and the game would end due to the ten run rule.

St. Louis Park improved their record to 9-13 and will face the Armstrong Falcons on Tuesday, May 30 at 4:30 in Plymouth.  Armstrong moved into the elimination bracket following a walk off win by the Hopkins Royals 4-3.  The two teams last met on April 24 with the Orioles holding off the Falcons 4-3.  Mpls.South concluded their season with a record of 10-10.