Peeler’s hit sparks Buffalo Post 270 to key victory

There were plenty of reasons to celebrate – prior, during, and after last Friday’s American Legion Baseball game between Buffalo Post 270 and Delano Post 377.

In the second of back-to-back games during the 2nd Annual Wright County Military Appreciation Night at Bentfield Mills Park, the Bison and their big crowd sat patiently to watch Buffalo’s VFW squad post a 1-0 extra-inning win over Delano’s VFW team. Both teams are sponsored by Wright County VFW Post 1901 in Montrose.

The legion squad would make it a Bison sweep of the Tigers when they capped off the evening with a 4-2 victory.

Delano’s only lead in either game came when Keagan Smith belted a solo homer to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead after an inning and a half.

The Tiger lead would be short-lived, as Bry Peeler smacked a 2-RBI double giving Buffalo a 2-1 advantage after two innings.

“It was a fastball,” said Peeler, who has earned a starting spot late in the year in right field. “The kid left it up, and I got it. I knew I burnt the kid in centerfield, so I just put my head down and ran.”

Head Coach Jack Strong has noticed a remarkable improvement in Peeler’s game since the high school season, in which Peeler was used mostly as a defensive replacement or pinch runner.

“Bry’s really improved this summer,” Strong said. “He’s hit the ball well all year, but he’s just been hitting it right at guys. Tonight was a good night for him. To see him get good at-bats and playing time in the outfield is good, because he has a shot next year to start for the varsity team.”

Buffalo added two more runs in the third on an RBI single by Cal James and RBI double by Kai Brisk.

Outside of the one mistake to Smith, starting pitcher Noah Christenson retired 15 of the first 16 batters he faced. A leadoff walk to Delano’s Adam Brown in the sixth would end a string of 12 straight batters retired by Christenson. Brown would eventually score the Tigers’ second and final run.

Nathan Buscher would record the final three outs in order in the seventh to record his third save of the season.

“The pitching on this team is really good,” Peeler said. “There’s a lot of solid pitchers, which is a lot like the varsity team.”

The victory came one night after Buffalo posted a key 4-0 road win last Thursday at Willmar.

According to Strong, the final two wins were enough in his mind to warrant a No. 1 seed in the upcoming Sub-State 15 playoff tournament.

“These were two wins that I told the boys we needed to probably get the No. 1 seed in the playoffs,” Strong said. “We go out to Willmar and ‘Web Gem’ (Michael Weber) throws a 3-hit complete game, and Noah comes out here and throws six-strong innings. Nathan Buscher’s been saving games for us all season. Once we get to the sixth inning and we have the lead, Buscher has come in and been lights out. That’s the pattern were going to use going into the tournament.”

Just like Strong predicted, Buffalo did receive the No. 1 seed when the seedings came out Tuesday. The Bison will host the winner between No. 8 Cokato and No. 9 Maple Plain on a date to be determined at Waconia.

Other seeds include: No. 2 Delano, No. 3 Willmar, No. 4 Waconia, No. 5 Marshall, No. 6 Cold Spring, and No. 7 Hutchinson.

The top seed from each Sub-State advances to the Legion State Tournament to be hosted by Cold Spring, who receives an automatic bid to state as the host team. Buffalo is the defending Sub-State 15 champion.

“We’ve handled teams pretty well in our district,” Peeler said. “We dropped one game against Cold Spring, but we made a lot of errors that game. If we clean that up, I think we have a good shot of going to state.”

While Friday night was celebrated with two Buffalo wins, the biggest success of the evening came from the contributions from their event sponsors and fan donations throughout the night, which featured two prize raffles, with all funds split between Buffalo Legion Post 270 and Wright County VFW Post 1901.

Last year raised just over $8,000 in donations, and Strong estimated this year’s total around $12,000.

“We started back in January planning for this night. We went around to local businesses to get donations, trying to spread the word about this event,” Strong said. “They really backed us up, and I think we got something like three-thousand dollars in donations from businesses. The word is kind of getting around the community that this is a big event and Buffalo is a great town that supports VFW and Legion baseball.”

“I think Jack and his helpers, along the Legion have started a really good tradition,” said VFW and Bison Head Coach Mike Beilke. “They made a tremendous amount of money to go towards a good cause last year. It’s really fun. The parking lot is full, and you obviously want to win, but it’s kind the second event of the night. It’s fun to be in front of a big crowd and know that everybody is out here for that cause.”

Buffalo’s home game on Monday, July 15 against Becker was cancelled due to rain. Next up is two non-league games starting with a 7 p.m. home game against St. Cloud 76ers on Thursday, July 18 at Bentfield Mills. The Bison will play a doubleheader on Friday, July 19 at Brainerd. Game one starts at 6 p.m. with game two following 30 minutes after.

Buffalo 4, Willmar 0

(Thursday, July 11 at Willmar)

Buffalo 270  0  0  0  0  1  0  3   –   4  10  1

Willmar       0  0  0  0  0  0  0   --   0    3   1

Post 270          AB  R  H  RBI BB K

Biegert             4    2    2    0    0    1

Christenson      4    0    1    1    0    0

James              4    1    2    1    0    0

Ea. Soeffker      3    1    1    0    0    0

Brisk                3    0    1    0    1    1

L. Brings           4    0    2    1    0    2

M. Weber          2    0    0    0    2    1

Peeler              4    0    1    0    0    1

Buscher           2    0    0    0    1    0

Totals             30    4  10    3    4    6

2B: Biegert; 3B: Biegert; HBP: Ea. Soeffker; SB: Brisk, L. Brings, Ea. Soeffker; E: Weber; LOB: 10.

Pitching           IP  H  R  ER  BB  K  NP     

M. Weber-W    7.0   3    0    0    0    4    78

Buffalo 4, Delano 2

(Friday, July 12 at Buffalo)

Delano 377    0  1  0  0  0  1  0   –   2   5  0

Buffalo 270   0  2  2  0  0  0  x   --   4   4   1

Post 270          AB  R  H  RBI BB K

Biegert             2    1    0    0    0    1

Christenson      2    0    0    0    0    0

James              3    1    1    1    0    0

Ea. Soeffker      3    0    0    0    0    2

Brisk                2    0    1    1    1    0

L. Brings           3    1    1    0    0    0

M. Weber          2    1    0    0    1    0

Peeler              1    0    1    2    1    0

Buscher           2    0    0    0    0    2

Totals             20    4    4    4    3    5

2B: Brisk, Peeler; HBP: Biegert; E: Brisk; LOB: 3.

Pitching           IP  H  R  ER  BB  K  NP     

Christenson-W  6.0   5    2    2    2    4    82

Buscher-S       1.0   0    0    0    0    1    12