Bemidji baseball tops Brainerd 7-2 in section playoff elimination game

Wyatt Tverstol gave Bemidji the breathing room it needed, and the Lumberjacks turned a must-win section game into a 7-2 victory over Brainerd on May 28, keeping their postseason alive in the Section 8AAAA elimination bracket.

The win came with immediate consequences for both teams. Bemidji entered the game as the No. 5 seed after a crushing 11-8 loss to Moorhead two days earlier, when a bottom-of-the-seventh walk-off three-run home run dropped the Lumberjacks into the elimination round. Brainerd, the No. 8 seed, was already in the same spot after falling 13-5 to St. Michael-Albertville. At 4:30 p.m., one team’s season was going to continue and the other’s was going to end.

Bemidji chose the path that extended its season. The final score, listed in the Minnesota State High School League bracket, showed Bemidji 7, Brainerd 2 and sent the Lumberjacks on to another elimination game against No. 3 Elk River on June 2. For a team that had just absorbed a heartbreaking loss in Moorhead, the response mattered as much as the result. In section baseball, there is no margin for recovery once the bracket turns. One win buys another day.

Tverstol was central to that answer. According to the Bemidji Pioneer, the Bemidji starter worked six innings and held Brainerd to two runs. That same report said he threw 105 pitches and admitted before the game that he felt nerves because the loser’s season would be over. He did not show those nerves on the mound, and Bemidji needed that steadiness to steady the rest of the lineup behind him.

The Lumberjacks had already shown they could handle Brainerd. Bemidji beat the Warriors 2-1 on May 19, a result that stretched its winning streak in the matchup to six straight games, according to MaxPreps. That recent run gave Bemidji a measure of confidence, but the elimination bracket made the second meeting far more demanding than a regular-season win.

Bemidji High School is listed by the league as the Lumberjacks, with head coach James Grimm. The school’s postseason path now runs through Elk River, and the next game will determine whether Bemidji keeps pushing toward a section title or sees its season end one round later than it nearly did against Moorhead.