Volga Cormorants pull away from Lennox, earns spot in state quarterfinals for the first time in team history

MITCHELL — The Cormorants have flown into unchartered territory.

The Volga Cormorants racked up 12 hits and got seven strong innings from starting pitcher Trevor Olson to pull away with a 7-2 win over the Lennox Bandits in the second round of the Class B state tournament at Cadwell Park.

And for reigning Eastern Dakota League champs, it’s the first time in team history the Cormorants have made the Class B quarterfinals.

“Tonight was all about just having fun,” said Volga manager Layne Lucas. “The ‘Rants have never been here and we just decided we were going to have fun and that’s what we did. Everybody showed up for us.”

While the hits came in bunches for the ‘Rants, runs were at a premium for much of the game Monday night.

Volga got on the board in the opening frame with an Austin Buysse blooper single into left field, scoring Tate Steffesen from second base. In the fourth inning, Lucas dropped a bunt down and scored two runs after a throwing error from Lennox pitcher Cole Spieler was wide off first base.

But the fourth and fifth innings each included back-breaking line drive double plays with runners in scoring position to cut down the Cormorant offense.

“He was a great pitcher tonight and we were getting some good swings,” said Buysse of Spieler. “The guys in the dugout were staying high, we were doing fine. It’ll fall for us and it eventually did. It was a good dugout vibe tonight and that helped us big tonight.”

Lennox’s Justin Underwood got the Bandits on the board with a fifth inning single while Buysse responded with a two-out RBI single of his own the next half inning.

Noah Puetz added an RBI single to left field, scoring Tate Walerius in the seventh inning to build a 5-1 lead.

The Bandits finally got some offense going in the eighth inning after an error from Lucas scoring a run, while a Peyton Garbers single had runners at the corners with nobody out for Lennox.

After seven strong innings from Olson, who allowed just two runs on six hits and two walks with seven strikeouts thrown, Jordan Sagedahl came in to get out of the jam, forcing a pop-up and back-to-back strikeouts.

“We’ve had him worked up all day knowing he was going to go out there and throw at least seven and he did his job,” Lucas said of Olson. “Can’t be more proud of Trevor.”

“TO is the heartbeat of our team,” Buysse added. “He’s been a great pitcher for a long time for the Cormorants. Leaning on him tonight, we knew we’d get a good outing we just had to play good defense behind him. I thought we did for the most part tonight and he got it done for us.”

The Cormorants broke the game open in the eighth inning with an RBI single from centerfielder Connor Gross to score two runs.

“I thought it was a great win,” Buysse said. “We hit the ball really well, we had a couple of bad breaks early, but we kept with it so I thought that was huge. That hit by Connor to get two runs in the eighth was huge. It just settled us down and it got us a win.”

Buysse and Gross each had two hits and two RBIs for Volga in the win, Puetz added three hits and drove in a run while Jordan Kathol tallied two hits. Sagedahl recorded his second save in as many state tournament games, throwing two perfect innings, recording four strikeouts.

“His defense is so good and getting Trevor to go seven and then Sagedahl to come in as a secret weapon that no one has really seen yet,” Lucas said of Sagedahl. “It’s huge for this team.”

Spieler took the loss for Lennox, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk in five innings with four strikeouts. Spieler added two hits while Underwood tallied the lone RBI for the Bandits.

Volga is on to the state quarterfinals for the first time in team history. It’ll face fellow district champion Alexandria on Aug. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

“We know we have to play good defense, get timely hitting,” Buysse said of the quarterfinal matchup. “We know they’re a great team and we respect a ton out of them. They’ve done what they’ve done in South Dakota amateur baseball and so we’re just going to go up there and give it out best effort and let it play on the field.”

“All of us doing what we’ve been doing all year,” Lucas added. “Playing as a team, stringing a couple things here and there and eliminating the errors.”