From the WDN

BEMIDJI, Minn. - The Winona VFW Buddies didn't have enough gas left in the tank.

After four emotionally and physically exhausting games at the VFW State Baseball Tournament, the Buddies let a championship slip away to Eagan.

Winona lost 14-8 and 11-5 to Eagan in the championship round. Because of the double elimination format, Eagan had to beat Winona (29-10) twice while the Buddies had to only win one game in order to take the trophy home.

"It's bittersweet," Winona coach Matt O'Brien said. "It's obviously disappointing not to win, but these kids gave it everything they had. To finish second isn't bad. It will definitely be different not to have practice tomorrow, not to see these kids."

The two teams played in the second round of the tournament, where Winona won 2-1. In the two championship games, Eagan scored 25 runs after Winona allowed only a total of nine runs in the first four games.

"We put on our own hitting display," O'Brien said. "We weren't going to go away quietly."
In the second game, Winona overcame a three-run deficit to take an 8-4 lead after a four-run fourth inning.

Drew Thompson reached on an error and advanced to second on Drew Kronebusch's single. Both Skylar Marks and John DeMarais singled to drive in runs.

"We were back to playing our game," O'Brien said. "We put pressure on them."

Eagan returned the pressure, stringing together five-run innings in both the fifth and sixth.

"You could see they were drained," O'Brien said. "We were just tired. You play all of these good teams and it's tough to play five emotional, physical games."

In the first game, the Buddies struggled against Eagan's left-handed pitcher Kevin Kunik.

"We did not come ready to play," O'Brien said. "It was one of our poorest performances. We came out flat."

Winona had nine hits, but couldn't get a rhythm going to score runs. Two singles in the bottom of the fifth snowballed into five runs for Eagan in an inning the blew the game open.

Box Score vs Eagan Game 1

Box Score vs Eagan Game 2

Read more: http://www.winonadailynews.com/sports/baseball/article_7b06c824-c6f2-11e0-8a78-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1V7FN3N00