Squirrels finish pool play unbeaten at Midwest Plains Regional

DICKINSON, N.D. -- The Charleston Fighting Squirrels locked up the No. 1 seed in Pool B at the Midwest Plains Regional Saturday night with a 9-0 victory against host Dickinson, North Dakota .

Charleston, which beat Holyoke, Colorado 11-1 Thursday and Eden Prairie Black, Minnesota 3-1 Friday, finishes 3-0 in Pool B.

Eden Prairie, which beat Holyoke 19-3 Saturday, finishes second in Pool B with a record of 2-1. Dickinson (1-2) finishes third in Pool B and Holyoke (0-3) places fourth.

Fargo, North Dakota and Oskaloosa, Iowa both went 2-1 in Pool A. Lyons, Kansas and Eden Prairie Red, Minnesota both went 1-2.

Fargo beat Lyons 8-7 in an elimination game Saturday and Oskaloosa beat Eden Prairie Red 8-4 in an elimination game Saturday.

Fargo finishes first in Pool A and Oskaloosa finished second because Fargo beat Oskaloosa 10-6 in a head-to-head meeting Friday.

The top two finishers in each four-team pool advance to today's four-team bracket-play portion of the tournament.

The first semifinal between Fargo and Eden Prairie Black begins at 1 p.m. Charleston takes on Oskaloosa in the second semifinal at approximately 3:30 p.m. The winners of the semifinals square off in the Midwest Plains Regional championship at 8:30 p.m.

The Fighting Squirrels collected three triples and a double against the Dickinson pitching staff Saturday.

Charleston tallied its first run in the top of the first inning when Luke Haines grounded into a double play with runners at first and third with nobody out. Brad Potts drew a leadoff single in the frame and advanced to third base when No. 2 hitter Tim Fox reached on an infield error.

The Fighting Squirrels tallied three runs in the top of the second inning. Cody Payne and Potts had RBI singles in the frame and Austin Aldridge collected an RBI triple.

Blake Wolferding and Colton Hampton had back-to-back RBI triples in the third. Aldridge plated his second RBI of the game later in the frame when he drove home Hampton from third base on a fielder's choice. Another run scored in the inning on a Dickinson error.

Potts drove home Charleston's final run with an RBI single in top of the seventh.

Aldridge earned a complete-game victory for Charleston. He allowed three hits, walked three and struck out eight in seven innings pitched. He threw 95 pitches.

-- Dexter Daily Statesman