HUNTER, ND. (NewsDakota.com) – The Oakes baseball team finished up its day at Northern Cass High School in the Region 1 baseball tournament with a 6-3 win over the Hankinson Stars to advance to the semifinals.

Starting pitching was the main force for the Tornadoes which was something they had not yet seen in the tournament, but junior pitcher Howie Neustel went six-and-one-third innings giving up three runs, two walks and five hits with five strikeouts.

As for the offense, Fletcher Willprecht, Steele Hansen and Brayley Haberman all had two hits, and Connor Schall had a three-hit night.

Going into the bottom of the sixth inning, Oakes trailed 3-1 with bases loaded and one out with Willprecht at-bat. He laid down a suicide squeeze bunt perfectly, scoring Hansen from third to bring the Tornadoes within one. Garret Meehl was the next batter, and he did the same thing but the throw to first got away from the first baseman scoring two runs. The throw over to third base got away as well which scored their third run, thus completing a bases-clearing suicide squeeze. The Tornadoes then led 6-3 and Meehl made his second appearance of the day on the bump to finish off the remaining two batters to get the save.

Oakes plays the #2 seeded Kindred in the semifinals on MOnday at 5:00 p.m. which you can listen to on The Tornado 1220 AM/95.9 FM.