By: Glenn Pursley, INFORUM<\/em><\/p>\nFARGO \u2013 If this is indeed the last fastpitch softball tournament held at Mickelson Field, it sure went out with a bang.<\/p>\n
The Circle Tap Dukes from Denmark, Wis., rallied with five runs in the seventh en route to a 9-8 victory over the Sooke Loggers on Sunday in the championship game at the North American Fastpitch Association Holm Open softball tournament in Fargo.<\/p>\n
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Proposed permanent flood-protection levees open the possibility that the longtime softball complex could be nearing its end.<\/p>\n
Circle Tap\u2019s German Sack started off the seventh inning with a two-run home run after Loggers pitcher Scott Lieph walked in a run to cut the lead in half.<\/p>\n
Back-to-back home runs hit by Josh Johnson and Chris Delorit closed the gap for the Dukes and tied the game at 8-8.<\/p>\n
The trio of home runs set up Jim Corbet for his chance to win the game. Corbet hit an game-winning single that drove in second baseman Tom Crouch and clinch the championship for the Dukes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a crazy day,\u201d Corbet said. \u201cWe actually had come from behind early (Sunday), so we ready to play until the last out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dukes defeated the Saskatoon Diamond Backs 4-3 after nine innings and then shut out the Kegel Black Knights 5-0 to make it to the championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we had the hitting,\u201d Dukes head coach Chad Huebner said. \u201cWe made two comebacks and had a walk-off win early. (We had to) keep our heads in the game and get base hits, that\u2019s basically it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Loggers took an early 4-0 lead as Adam Schnarr starting things off with a one-out, two-run single in the first inning. An error by shortstop Kris Walushka allowed Nick Needham to score and started the landslide for the Loggers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a few errors and put some people up to bat,\u201d Loggers head coach Len Banner said. \u201cWe could have got out of the inning with a double play \u2026 and then they hit four home runs. That was a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the NAFA Open victory, the Circle Tap Dukes receive a bid into the International Softball Conference World Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ranked No. 9 as of right now and hopefully we can move up a couple more spots,\u201d Huebner said.<\/p>\n
SL\t411\t110\t0\u2013 8\t11\t2<\/p>\n
CT\t100\t111\t5\u2013 9\t12\t2<\/p>\n
Haldane, Lieph (7) and Banner. Manley, Johnson (4) and Peters. W\u2013Manley. L\u2013Lieph. HR- Corbert (2), Sacks (2), Johnson, Delorit, Banner.<\/p>\n
Readers can reach Forum reporter
\nGlenn Pursley at (701) 451-5549<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Click logo for the official NAFA website. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"reprinted from www.Fastpitchwest.com get the complete story and complete stats at www.fargofastpitch.com\u00a0 and watch the championship game on video as well as many other games. Circle Tap Dukes down Sooke Loggers for NAFA Open Holm Title.\u00a0 The Circle Tap Dukes from Denmark, Wis., rallied with five runs in the seventh en route to a 9-8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2687"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2724,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions\/2724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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