Aberdeen, SD – The Miller Lite Merchants headed to Aberdeen, South Dakota this past weekend for the Aberdeen Circus Invitational and came away without a tournament title for the third time this year.  

The Merchants were originally scheduled to take on Groton, SD and Aberdeen on Saturday night. However, mother nature had other plans.  

Saturday’s game vs. Groton made it through the first inning and a half before heavy rain suspended the game till Sunday tied at 3. 

That first inning was action packed for the M’s. They scored two in the top of the first and gave Andrew Hill a lead in his first career start on the mound for the Merchants.  

Hill quickly found himself in trouble, walking five batters in that first inning and giving the lead back to Groton at 3-2.  

“I just couldn’t find it,” stated Hill as he tried to figure out how to sober up before the bottom of the second. 

Luckily for Hill and the Merchants they manufactured a run in the top of the second to tie the game before the rain came to suspend things till Sunday. 

After drinking 102 Beasts Saturday night, the Merchants took the field early Sunday morning to take part in an unheard-of triple-header.  

Play resumed against Groton and the Merchants turned to Tony Viger to guide them through the Groton lineup.  

After a scoreless bottom of the second by Viger, Bryan Erstad promptly put the Merchants in the lead for good with a towering home run down the right field line.  

Groton put across one run over five innings against Viger but the Merchants bats kept hitting and the game ended after six via the South Dakota 8-run rule with a score of 12-4. 

In game two of Sunday’s triple-header the Merchants took on undefeated Aberdeen and unfortunately, Aberdeen came away from the game still undefeated.  

Brandon Baumgartner started on the mound for the M’s and spent most of the day from the stretch as the Aberdeen bats kept getting on base.  

Baumgartner was able to strand a small village of Aberdeen runners, while the Merchant bats put three runs across against former Nebraska Husker product Christian Cox.  

However, three untimely errors in the fifth allowed Aberdeen to tie the game at 3 and force the seven-inning game to go into extras. Aberdeen would load the bases up and win on a walk-off base hit to give the M’s their third loss of the year and ruin their chances at winning the tournament. 

In the final game of the day, the Merchants faced off against the Redfield Pheasants. The Pheasants tried to the thumb the Merchants to death by throwing a lefty that topped out at 70 mph but the Merchants found just enough offense to win 4-2. 

Anthony Fontana was masterful on the mound, pitching a complete game when the M’s had no pitching left.  

The Merchants have now gone 2-1 in each of their three tournaments this year. They will look to win their last tournament of the summer this July in Jamestown. 

The M’s (11-3) resume play this Wednesday against the Mayville Redcaps. First pitch is at 7:00 pm. Greg Lunski will toe the rubber for the Merchants.