LEOPOLD FALLS IN 1A SECTIONAL 8-4

WINONA -- Winona took advantage of its friendly confines Thursday, hitting four home runs and overpowering Leopold 8-4 in a Class 1A sectional game.

Leopold (11-7), coming off its first district championship in school history, opened up the scoring and led 2-0 after the top of the first, but Winona (16-2) scored one in the second, one in the third, four in the fourth and two in the fifth.

Winona's four runs in the fourth all came with two outs after Leopold ace Jason Van de Ven struck out the first two batters.

Winona then singled, homered, singled and homered again to take a 6-2 lead in the blink of an eye.

Brian Simpson, who also picked up the win in relief, homered twice for Winona to give him 17 on the season. But Simpson has put up most of those homers on a field which measures 260 to left and 280 to right.

"They homered us to death," said Leopold coach Ted LeGrand. "They took advantage of the short fence."

Ashton James had a huge day for Leopold. He went 3-for-4 with a homer and two singles. Lee Vandermierden hit an RBI double for Leopold, which finished with only five hits.

Van de Ven, who put up some impressive numbers this season, took the loss. He allowed eight hits -- four of which left the yard -- while walking three. Van de Ven struck out seven.

"Overall, we had some hard luck," said LeGrand. "But we had a good game. We just didn't have the pop in our bats that we had lately."

LeGrand said he was surprised with Leopold's following.

He said many made the 120-mile trip.

"We really appreciate the support we got," LeGrand said. "We didn't expect very many to make the trip but they did. It was a good crowd for a 1A sectional."