Everything was on the line this past Sunday as the Blue Jays faced the Randall Cubs at Varsity Field in Upsala.  The winner would clinch a spot in the Region 8C tournament, while the loser would see their season come to an end.

The pitching match up featured 2 of the better pitchers in the Victory League West Division.  Matt Swanson took the mound for Upsala, while Randall countered with Kyle Boser.  Randall grabbed any early 1-0 lead when Alec Zack scored on a wild pitch in the top of the 3rd.  Upsala managed to push across the tying run in the 5th, as Ben Burggraff provided a 2-out run scoring single to right,  The Jays took the lead in the bottom of the 6th, when Justin Lampert belted a 3-run homer to left center, putting Upsala up 4-1.  Randall would close the gap to 4-2 in the 7th on a Kyle Petershick RBI single.  Upsala would respond in the bottom of the 7th, scoring on a Randall error with 2 outs.  Entering the 8th up 5-2, Randall would force Upsala starter Matt Swanson out of the game, as Swanson gave way to Eric Lampert.  Kyle Boser would single off Lampert to close the gap to 5-3, and have the tying run reach 2nd base, but Lampert would get a strike out to get out of the jam.  Randall would again mount a threat in the 9th, bringing the go ahead run to the plate with 2 outs, but Lampert would again get out of trouble as the final out of the game was secured on a pop out to 1st base.  As mentioned, the win clinched a spot in the Region 8C tournament for Upsala, while the loss ended Randall's season.  Matt Swanson took the win for the Jays, will Kyle Boser was tagged with the loss for Randall.  Eric Lampert earned the save.

Matt Swanson was the only player with a mult-hit day for Upsala.  Kyle Petershick had a big day for Randall with 3 hits.

The win also meant that Upsala would travel to Sobieski later on Sunday afternoon to play in the West Division championship against the Sobieski Skis.  Sobieski would go on to win this one 4-0 behind a strong pitching outing from Andrew Lange.  Lange worked 7 innings of shutout ball to earn the win.  Lange was then relieved by Josh Wenzel who pitched 2 effective innings to take the save. Brock Cichon pitched well for Upsala, allowing the 4 runs over 8 innings of work.  Muliple hitters had 2 hit games for Sobieski, including Beau Hanowski, Scott Litchy, Joey Hanowski, Jon Czech, Collin Eckman, and Thomas Miller.  Justin Lampert had 2 hits for Upsala.

The win means that Sobieski will enter the Region tournament as the #1 seed from the West, while Upsala will be the #2 seed.  Sobieski selected Kyle Boser of Randall with their draft selection.   Upsala then selected Paul Krebs of Flensburg with their draft selection. The Blue Jays will face the Nisswa Lightning of the Victory League North in the opening round of the region tournament.  The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 PM on Saturday in Pierz.

There is a full slate of games to open up the Region 8C tournament this coming Saturday in Pierz.  The schedule is as follows:

11 AM:  St. Stephen Steves (South #2) Vs. Lastrup Lakers (East #1)

1:30 PM:  Buckman Billygoats (East #2) Vs. Avon Lakers (South #1)

5 PM:  Fort Ripley Rebels (North #2) Vs. Sobieski Skis (West #1)

7:30 PM:  Upsala Blue Jays (West #2) Vs. Nisswa Lightning (North #1)

Pending the results of the Blue Jays game with NIsswa, Upsala will either play at 5 PM or 7:30 PM on Sunday evening.  The opponent will either by Buckman or Avon.