Albertville's Villans Capture No. 1 Seed for Class C Regional Tournament

With their season on the line, the Albertville Villains amateur baseball club brought their “A” game against the Red Devils of Rogers on Saturday, routing them in a 14-1 victory.

The Villains extended their winning streak over Rogers to three, previously beating Rogers by scores of 13-2 and 10-8 in their two meetings earlier this season.

The loss ends the Red Devils' 2011 campaign.  

The Villains never trailed in the seven-inning contest, taking the lead with a first-inning home run from center fielder James Althoff on just the second pitch he saw.

Though Rogers ended up scoring a run in the top of the second, Albertville pitcher Brian Lampert ended a Red Devils' bases-loaded threat with a strikeout for the final out of the inning.

His offense took it from there, giving him plenty of support.

Lampert pitched all seven innings for the Villains, allowing just three hits, all singles, and one unearned run. Although he walked four batters, including two consecutively to load the bases in the aforementioned second inning, he helped himself out with nine strikeouts.

Rogers didn't help their own cause, committing a total of four errors, two of them helping Albertville score three runs in the fourth inning. The cherry on top of the game came in the bottom of the seventh with the Villains needing just one run to successfully enforce the 10-run rule and win.

Althoff started off the seventh with a walk, shortstop Bryton Carlson followed with a single and Todd Klaers, playing catcher, grounded out for the first out of the inning, but both runners advanced. So the Red Devils' right fielder then called to the pitcher and suggested he intentionally walk Albertville's cleanup hitter, Jeff Jarvis, in order to set up the double play and give Rogers a chance to exit the inning and attempt a monstrous come back.

First baseman Patrick Lenton and coach Paul Schumacher knew, going into the at-bat, that with just the one out, he needed only a well-placed fly ball to score the decisive 11^th run. But Lenton had other ideas, launching the first pitch over the right field wall for his fourth hit of the steamy afternoon. 

The momentum from the Rogers win pushed the Villains Sunday, as the hometown nine completed a two-game sweep of the Rockford River Bandits to claim the Section 8C title and the No. 1 seed from the West in the Regional Tournament, which begins Wednesday evening. 

Albertville topped Rockford 10-3 and 13-10 to avenge a loss last Sunday to the River Bandits. 

The win means the Villains open tournament play in Loretto Wednesday night vs. the Dassel-Cokato Saints, the No. 2 seed from the West. The Villains dropped their only game vs. Saints, 4-3, back on June 18. 

Game time is 7:30 p.m. in Loretto at Klaers Field. The tournament is double-elimination, so each team will have at least one more game.