The Sauk Rapids American Legion baseball team beat Nisswa 14-12 in a wild game at Dick Putz Field Thursday night. Sauk Rapids will play against Sartell Saturday afternoon at 1 PM needed only one win to advance to next week's state tournament.

Nisswa trailed 12-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when pinch Dylan Vanek's single scored a pair of runs and loaded the bases for catcher Matt Casperson.

Casperson smacked a pitch that appeared to hook foul by a couple of feet before it went over the fence, but the home plate umpire declared it a fair ball, making the score 12-9. Nisswa would add another run in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 12-10.

Tyler Bjork's two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning for Sauk Rapids made the score 14-10, and Nisswa's rally in the bottom of the ninth inning would come up a couple of runs short.

Mat Meyer finished the game 4-4 with four runs batted in, including a three-run home run, and three runs scored.

Elsewhere, Sartell beat the Chutes 8-6 to advance to the championship round of the tournament on Saturday, where they will have to beat Sauk Rapids twice to advance to the state tournament.

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