MANDAN - The kids are all right, but are they good enough? We’ll find out tonight.
Grand Forks Central’s freshmen-laden lineup is on the verge of a state title after beating rival Grand Forks Red River 3-2 on Friday night in the semifinals of the North Dakota state Class A baseball tournament.
In doing so, the Knights snapped Red River’s 14-game winning streak and earned a berth in the state championship game.
“No one gave this team any credit, but these kids have played in big tournaments,” Central coach Kyle Beckstead said. “Our leaders have become leaders. And these guys believe in themselves.”
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Freshman pitcher Brock Reller went the distance for the Knights, who are headed for their fifth title game with an unlikely lineup that features four freshmen.
“I don’t feel like a freshman, I feel like I’m a sophomore now,” said Reller, who gave up five hits and struck out nine batters – eight on called strikes.
“I just threw everything I had at them,” Reller said.
Freshman Nick Lund belted a solo homer in the fourth to snap a 1-1 tie. Lund flirted with a second homer in the second inning, rattling a double off the wall. He was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
After Red River tied the game 2-2 in the fourth, Central freshman Noah Cieklinski drove in Kaleb Binstock with the winning run in the sixth.
Central’s four starting freshmen went a combined 5-for-11 with two runs and all three runs batted in.
Central (13-13) struck first with one run in the second. With one out, Lund doubled off the wall in left. He went to third on an infield single by Reller and scored on Rakeem Wright’s fly out to right. Lund would have been thrown out at the plate but he jarred the ball from the mitt of catcher Brandon Walters with a hard slide.
The Roughriders (22-4) tied it on a bang-bang play at the plate. Jayce Turner, who reached base when he was plunked by Reller, beat a throw home from right field on Colin Hennessy’s single with two outs in the third.
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Red River’s Eric Leach tied the game for the last time with a double to left in the fourth inning.
Hennessy started and took the loss for Red River. He went five innings and gave up eight hits while striking out four.
Central will try to win perhaps its most unlikely title yet tonight when it plays Bismarck. It has won twice before, the last time in 2006.
Beckstead summed it up: “We have a saying, ‘Don’t be satisfied.’ Don’t be happy being here. Nobody thought we would be here, we made it.”
