Rochester, MN

The Winona VFW Buddies (1-0) baseball team got off to a good start to their season with a 11-5 victory over the Rochester Knights (0-1). 

Winona started fast scoring four runs in the first inning receiving RBI from Andy Tofstad, Dylan Banicki, and Noah Nachtigal. Rochester would tie the game up in the third only to have the Buddies respond with five runs in the top of the fourth inning en route to the 11-5 win.

Mac Whaley (2-3, 2 R), Nash Kramer (2-3, 3 R), and Jonah Spiten (1-3, 2B, 2 RBI) helped pace the Buddies 9 hit attack. Winona also stole six bases highlighted by Hayden Zaborowski's two. 

"We had great at bats and were aggressive on the base paths," Head Buddies' Coach Matt O'Brien said. "Coach (Matt) Cada and I were very impressed with how well we executed and limited mistakes."

Nick Evans picked up the win in relief for Winona. Evans went 2 1/3 IP, striking out 2, walking 0, and limiting the Knights to 3 hits. 

"You couldn't really ask for anything better out of our guys in their first game," O'Brien said. "We talked about cutting down on the walks with our pitchers and keeping opposing runners close, but that's being picky."

The Buddies return to action Saturday for a double header at Stewartville starting at 11:00 a.m. 

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