It's a win! And the Saints are in (VIDEO)

A determined, gritty Greenwald Cubs team came to town today for a border battle to open the Stearns County League North division playoffs. After drawing first blood with one run in the top of the third, the Cubs fell behind 5-1 in the bottom of the third when Gavin Kampsen hit a grand slam home run over the left field fence at Saints Field. His one-out bomb, which sailed 5 to 10 feet above the fence, gave the Saints a 5-1 lead.

**Here's a video featuring Kampsen rounding the bases and being greeted back at the dugout:


Down the stretch, the bats came alive for the Saints, who finished with two doubles and one triple to go with Kampsen's grand slam. Elrosa joins St. Martin as two SCL teams with tickets to the Region 15C tournament in Lake Henry/St. Martin in August.

Final: Elrosa 12, Greenwald 3. Ethan Vogt pitched six innings for the win with five strikeouts, one walk and three earned runs. Ashton Dingmann earned the save in three innings with just one hit, no walks and three strikeouts. Overall, the Saints had 12 hits to 10 for the Cubs.

NEXT: the Saints play in the division championship at noon tomorrow, July 23, at New Munich. Their opponent will be the winner of this afternoon's game between New Munich and Spring Hill. First pitch at the Silverstreaks' stadium is at 2:30 p.m.

At St. Martin last night, the host Martins defeated Richmond 3-2 in walk-off fashion after trailing 2-0 to earn a spot in the region tournament.

UPDATE on my Bonanza Valley Days coverage...we are entering the final week with BVD coverage to publish in the newspaper. The July 27 issue will have additional coverage from the BVD kiddie parade, kids pedal pull, Scouts BSA Waffle Feed, the Miss Brooten program and the grand parade. So far at the newspaper's SmugMug photo gallery, the BVD photo totals is 855 pictures from the big four-day celebration in Brooten. Of that total 371 uploaded photos are from the BVD grand parade. The direct link to the SmugMug folder that has all the BVD galleries is: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2023-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events.