New Richland starters Aaron Gilliland and Vinnie Van Engelenburg got the nod for the Reds Saturday and Sunday in the Class C Region 4 Amateur Baseball Tournament held at Waterville’s William J. Grose Park.

The two hurlers, combined, gave up just two runs on 11 hits, with no walks in 18 innings of play and still dropped both games in the double elimination tournament, losing to Waterville 1-0 on Saturday, the third one-run loss to the Indians this season, and Lake Crystal 1-0 on Sunday.

“That’s hard to take, it’s a shame to play so well and still lose both games,” said Reds head coach Jason Churchill. “Defense has always been our strong point and we did what we had to do in the field, we just couldn’t get anyone on base.”

Churchill was exactly right, at least against Waterville on Saturday where the Reds had only four batters reach base on three hits. Gilliland, Van Engelenburg, and Seth Tukua all singled while a Reds’ draft pick from Minnesota Lake, catcher Bobby Olson, was the only one to get in scoring position, making it to third after reaching base on an error.

It was also Olson who nearly came up big for the Reds trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh with a runner on base. Olson, who batted .370 on the year, looked like he would give New Richland the lead with one swing of the bat, but the long fly ball was caught at the warning track in left field, barely short of the fence.

“Aaron (Gilliland) pitched a great game for us today, we just couldn’t come through for him at the plate,” Churchill said.

Sunday, as Reds general manager Gary Churchill put it, was do or die time for New Richland. The team knew they needed base runners in scoring position and Van Engelenburg, who also started on the mound, looked to get the offense moving with a lead-off double up the middle.

As happened inning after inning this weekend for the Reds, when the team had scoring threats no one could come up with a base hit.

In the third Tory Somage singled and reached second. In the fourth Gilliland singled and was put out at second on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Tukua, and in the fifth it was Somage again with a single. Then in the bottom of the ninth Tukua singled to center field and moved to second on a wild pitch.

That was as far as they would get as the Reds season came to an end with runners on first and second and a record of 13-10. New Richland was the Hwy. 13-60 Blue Division regular season champions after being just 5-6 halfway through the season.

Hitting leaders for the Reds this season was Van Engelenburg (.437), Tukua (.424), Gilliland (.381), Chris Somage (.326), Josh Churchill (.326), and Jason Churchill (.311).

“We’re still young, we had some new guys this year that we think will really help us next season,” said Churchill. “It’s really disappointing to lose two games by a score of 1-0, but we’ll build on it and be back better next year.”

Game One

Waterville 1, New Richland 0

Waterville – 001 000 000 1 5 1

New Richland – 000 000 000 0 3 0

WP – Jeff Gesske 9 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 K,

LP – Aaron Gilliland 9 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 5 K, BB

Game Two

Lake Crystal 1, New Richland 0

Lake Crystal – 000 100 000 1 6 4

New Richland – 000 000 000 0 5 1

WP – Jesse VanSickle 9 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 2 K, BB

LP – Vinnie Van Engelenburg 9 IP, 1 R, 6 H, 6 K