From WDN

Cannon Falls, MN

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Winona Buddies coaches Matt O’Brien and Matt Cada tell their baseball team that the game has a way of coming back to them.

They never thought it’d come back like this.

Down by six heading to the final inning, the Buddies sent 17 batters to the plate and scored 12 runs to shock  host Cannon Falls 19-13 in the divisional round of the VFW District 1 tournament Saturday.

“We’re pretty speechless,” Cada said. “It just seemed like we couldn’t do anything wrong.”

Down 11-3 at one point and 13-7 heading into the seventh, the 12th-seeded Buddies (11-14) exploded with nine hits in the inning. The capper was a bases-clearing triple from Spencer Rudnick that gave Winona a 16-13 lead.

“You could sense momentum had shifted,” Cada said. “It was over.”

Rudnick finished 4-for-4 with five RBI for the Buddies, who’ll play in the division championship game at 3:30 p.m. today against either the same Cannon Falls team or 13th-seeded Albert Lea. The Buddies will have two chances to win the title game and advance to the district final four.

Andy Tofstad, one of five pitchers the Buddies used in the game, drove in four runs. Josh Forst had three RBI.

Earlier in the day, Matt Masyga held the fourth-seeded Rochester Knights to four hits over seven innings in a 3-1 victory. Matt Clark went 2-for-4 with two RBI.

Box Score vs Rochester Knights

http://leaguelineup.com/gamesum_baseball.asp?sid=666010549&GameID=16675380&url=winvfw

Box Score vs Cannon Falls

http://leaguelineup.com/gamesum_baseball.asp?sid=666010549&GameID=16675386&url=winvfw