Little Falls tops Gresham at home
By Greg Seubert
Small-town amateur baseball is alive and well in Little Falls.
Little Falls capped the Badger Amateur Baseball Association’s 75th season Sept. 5 with a 14-3 win over Gresham in the BABA Grand Championship game.
A pair of key hits and a complete-game pitching performance from Chris Dunn helped the Loggers win their first championship since 2018 and eighth overall.
“We think about this date and this is what we play for the whole way through,” manager Kyle Fischer said.
Little Falls also won championships in 1992, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2006 and 2007 while finishing second in 1988, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2019.
Gresham opened the scoring with a run in the top of the second inning, but the lead didn’t last long.
The Loggers tied the game in the bottom half of the inning as Seth Korb drove in the team’s first run while reaching on an error. Carter Kurki then drew a walk to load the bases and Kal Fischer emptied them with a grand slam over the center-field fence that gave the home team the lead for good.
“I’ve seen him play ever since he was in Little League and I’ve seen him hit three home runs: one in Gresham a couple years ago, one last week and one this week,” said Fischer, who is also Kal’s father. “He’s been on a roll.”
Little Falls added to its lead in the fourth on Dunn’s RBI single, but Gresham came up with a run in the fifth to make it 6-2.
The Loggers came up with two runs in the sixth on Hunter’s Gruenwald’s RBI single and Drew Radies’ fielder’s choice.
Little Falls added five more in the next inning, with Radies driving in three runs with a bases-loaded double.
The Loggers’ final run came in the eighth, as Cam Gruenwald was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Three straight singles led to a run for the Gophers in the ninth, but Dunn retired the next two batters on groundouts.
“You have to have good pitching,” Fischer said. “We have Chris and Chris has been lights out for us. We get him a little bit of a lead and we have a good chance of winning.”
Most of the Loggers’ roster this season consisted of players from the Iola area that played at Iola-Scandinavia High School. Other players are from the Little Falls, Marion and Manawa areas.
Although the Loggers played a handful of games last year, Fischer was happy to see the BABA return with a full season in 2021 that included 22 teams in four divisions.
“I think it’s huge,” he said. “We lost two teams this last year because of the pandemic and hopefully, we can recover at least one more back.”