By Jon Akre

605 Sports

It had been over two weeks since Graesser last saw time on the mound, last pitching in the District 5B semfinal victory over Dimock/Emery, but was efficient in his first outing back.

“I felt good, I knew I felt good coming in,” said Graesser. “Been battling a little bit of a back problem but I felt really good coming in so I knew I was going to be bringing it.”

With Graesser throwing nearly eight shutout innings, the Pheasants were able to build a five-run lead.

The Pheasants struck for two runs on a Chandler Bakely fielder’s choice in the second inning and another three runs on back-to-back singles by Dillon Lambley and Austin Richey in the sixth.

But for a high powered Winner/Colome offense, Mount Vernon’s starting pitcher Deric Denning was able to keep the Mustangs in it, stymying the Pheasants to just seven hits.

“He threw against us the first time this year, he left a lot up the first game when we played them,” said Winner/Colome shortstop Reed Harter. “But he did a good job today of mixing things up and keeping us off balanced and keeping the ball down in the zone, but we put some barrels on some baseballs I thought, too.”

The very next batter after Graesser’s no-hitter was broken, the Mustangs were able to get on the board with a Denning RBI-single, and continued to cut into the Pheasants lead in the ninth with a Jonah Schmidt (Parkston Rays pick-up player) RBI-single.

“We knew they were going to battle us, they always do when it comes to postseason time. Regular season doesn’t matter, whatever the score was when we played them both times,” said Harter. “We knew they were going to come out here and give us their best and we were going to do the same.”

Graesser forced Mustang first baseman Eric Giblin to ground into a double play, ultimately ending the game, and the Mustangs season.

“I knew we had to bring it today, I knew we had to score some runs and I was just hoping the arm could hack it and it did,” said Giblin

For Winner/Colome, Harter tallied a double, triple, and a walk, Richey drove in two runs on a hit and a walk, Lambley drove in a run on one hit, Bakely drove in a run on a walk, while Drew DeMers, Dylan Soulek (Parkston Rays pick-up player), and Austin Calhoon each tallied hits in the win.

For Mount Vernon, Denning allowed five runs on seven hits and four walks in eight innings, striking out six.

Denning drove in a run on one hit, while Chase Hetland, Bradley Dean, Schmidt, and Deinert each tallied hits in the loss.

Winner/Colome advances to the quarterfinal round of the State B tournament, and will face the Four Corners vs. Garretson winner on Friday at 7:30 p.m.