Heartbreaking loss ends Braves’ season

The Royals sent the Braves home for the final time this year after a bases-loaded, two-out, walk-off error ended Waseca’s season 3-2 Saturday in Minnesota Lake. 

Veteran left-hander Kelvin Nelson pitched another gem, going the distance, only allowing three runs, one earned, while striking out two and walking four, including the lead-off batter in the ninth, Nathan Moore, who represented the game-winning run.

Moore was erased and replaced at first base after a failed sacrifice bunt attempt from T.J. Nowak. 

An errant throw on a grounder to third put runners on the corners. After stealing second, Nelson made a great play on a swinging bunt attempt, fielding the ball three feet up the first baseline, on the foul line. After tagging the hitter on the foot, Nelson ran Nowak, who was on third, back to the bag, but the throw was dropped at third and the umpires called everyone safe. 

“You weren’t watching close enough,” Nelson told the umpires after the play, as the pair of officials discussed the play. The umpires agreed because they hadn’t seen the tag, that everyone was safe. A notably upset Nelson shook his head as he looked to the Royals' runner at first, Jay Byram, who remained silent. 

With the infield in, a grounder to hometown kid, Maple River graduate Seth Anderson, erased the runner at third as he came home with the play, catching the runner by a step and a half for the second out. 

With two outs, the infield returned to normal depth. The eight-hole hitter, Koby Nagel, grounded a slow grounder to short. Tyson Reger bobbled it, looked to second, and threw to first. Nagel was safe by three steps as Ethan Sandelir, who reached on the throwing error earlier in the inning, scored the game winning run. 

How did we get here?

A leadoff double, followed by a pop fly single between the right fielder, the center fielder, and second base, led to two runners in scoring position for the Royals in the bottom of the third with nobody out. A grounder to third had Nagel, the runner occupying second, confused. He ran to third, but Danny Cromer, who fielded the grounder, didn’t see him. He threw to first for the out as Nagel nearly collided with the runner occupying third, who then went home to score the first run of the game. 

A grounder to Reger at short was thrown home on the next play to limit the damage. 

The Braves answered right away in the fourth. A two-out single from catcher Chris Glynn, who said he appreciates all the help he can get from the newspaper in his dating life, was followed by an RBI double to the deepest part of the park, left-center, from Kyle Waugh. 

The inning ended after a Ryan Wangen groundout off the glove of the pitcher. Wangen grounded out two more times to the pitcher and kept asking why his batted balls kept finding their way to the pitcher's mitt. 

A leadoff double from Royal Nowak was plated on an RBI single from Ethan Sandelir, putting the Royals ahead 2-1 in their half of the fourth. 

The Braves tied the game in sixth, but left two runners in scoring position. Uriah Possin singled on a screaming one-out single off the glove of Royal third baseman TJ Schmidtke, and scored on a Glynn single up the middle. 

Waugh struck out and Wangen grounded out to the pitcher, again, to end the inning. 

The Brave struck out five times over their next nine at-bats, going down in order the final three frames. 

The Braves end their season with a record of 8-14.

Braves manager Blake Nelson — Kelvin’s dad —thanked all who played for the team this season and looks forward to better things next year.

“This is what you play for,” said Blake. “The guys need to remember this feeling next year, the fun of it. As you get older, you don’t get this competition anymore. This is what you play for. Come January, we need to start taking this more seriously.”

Assistant Braves manager Tink Larson revealed the team broke one record in 2022, a mark that stood for 50 years. The team batting average was .210. The previous record was .219 in 1972.

Larson is confident the Braves will fare better in 2023.

“We could just as well have beat (Minnesota Lake),” he said. “We played with them but made a couple mistakes.”

Larson was pleased to see the squad keep battling despite facing adversity, including some players who did not return from the previous season and Nelson sustaining an injury.

“It makes such a difference when Kelvin pitches,” said Larson. “We hope everyone is looking forward to next year. We will definitely be better.”