MHS baseball goes 3-0 at Border Battle tournament in Sioux Falls

Apr. 12—MITCHELL — An unbeaten start to the 2026 spring season continued through the weekend for the Mitchell High School baseball team.

With three games in two days, the Kernels collected a trio of wins over North Dakota opponents at the Border Battle tournament in Sioux Falls, improving to 5-0 through the first week of play. Mitchell defeated Fargo Shanley 4-3 on Friday, then took down West Fargo Sheyenne 5-2 and Grand Forks Central 13-1 on Saturday.

In the blowout five-inning win over Grand Forks Central to close out Mitchell's showing at the event, Kaiden Allen earned the pitching win, striking out six batters while yielding three hits, one walk and one unearned run over four innings.

Lincoln Bottum recorded three hits and a walk, as leadoff hitter Carter McCormick had two hits, two walks and scored three runs. Ethan Hegg also had two hits and scored two runs, while Jaxson Hartman drove in three runs and Canon Moller plated two runs.

Against Sheyenne, Jacob Ebert went 5 2/3 innings on the mound to get the pitching victory, finishing with four strikeouts against five hits, three walks and two earned runs allowed. Ian Weber recorded four outs in relief and earned credit for a save. At the plate, Hartman notched two hits and scored twice, while Bottum drove in a pair of runs.

Mitchell walked off Shanley in its opener courtesy of Moller, whose two-out single in the bottom of the seventh scored Stratton Forst. Moller's game-winning base knock was one of just four hits the Kernels had in the game, but they drew nine walks, including Forst in the seventh inning, which was his third base on balls of the contest.

McCormick also drew three walks, while Moller was the lone hitter to post a hit and a walk. Meanwhile, three Mitchell pitchers combined to one-hit Shanley. McCormick and Bottum each hurled three innings, but it was Weber's seventh-inning relief effort that earned the pitching win.

Mitchell (5-0) is on the road to play O'Gorman on Tuesday, April 14 at the Sanford Diamonds in Sioux Falls.