The Crossover tournament started easy enough for the Riverland Community College baseball team, then it had to sweat one out.

The Blue Devils (12-2 overall) beat Central Lakes 10-0 in five innings in the opener, but had to squeak out a 5-3 win over Northland in the nightcap Friday.

The Pioneers had the bases loaded with two outs trailing 5-3 in the top of the seventh, when Mark Broden hit a sharp liner at RCC third baseman Aaron Fisher, who knocked the ball down with his glove. Fisher recovered the ball and tagged out Northland’s Dillon Lundin right before he reached third base.

Though Northland objected the call, RCC left fielder Kyle Young had a good view of the play.

“He was out, there’s no doubt about that,” said Young. “That’s a heart attack play, but Fisher knocked it down and made the play. That’s what he’s here for.”

Young provided a bulk of RCC’s offense against Northland (0-10 overall) as he drilled a two-run homer to tie the game at two in the third and after a two-out error by Northland put Shawn Pape on base, Young blasted another two-run homer to make it 4-2. Young, a lefty from Rapid City, also hit a homer off the left field scoreboard in the win over Central Lakes.

“The balls are coming where I want them,” he said. “They’re my pitches and I’m trying to get base hits. Home runs happen on accident.”

Kyal Williams got the start on the mound for Riverland, but after Northland put two runners on in the fifth, Brian Voigt came in. Voigt shut down the Pioneers until the seventh inning when Lundin drilled a double to the left wall to score a run. Voigt responded by striking out Nolan Knott on three pitches and walking Brent Culleton to set up the final at-bat.

RCC head coach Scott Koenigs was not happy with the fact that his team left the bases loaded on in the sixth inning and left runners on first and third in the first and second innings.

“We didn’t play very well and we have to advance runners better, but we’ll take the win,” Koenigs said. “We’ve got to play better than that in the conference or we’re not going to win those games.”

In the win against Central Lakes, Young added a pair of RBI-singles, but the Blue Devils led just 5-0 going into the fifth. Derek Hahn and Dustin Fritz drew one-out walks in that frame and Reece Steckler blasted the first pitch he saw over the left-center field fence to make it 8-0. RCC ended the game when two runs scored on a throwing error by Central Lakes (3-8 overall).

Rapid City native Mitch Jaeger put fourth a solid effort to get the win as he allowed just one walk and no hits while getting the win in five innings.

“It was feeling good today. As long as you’re shooting (strikes) and staying ahead of them, you’re going to win games,” he said. “You just can’t lose focus from the start and no matter what happens you have to stay on top the whole time.”

Jaeger, a sophomore, said this year’s Blue Devils compare favorably to last year’s team that went all the way to the Division III Junior College world series.

“We have about the same amount of talent as last year, but there’s better team chemistry this year,” he said.

On Saturday, RCC will host Central Lakes at 11 a.m. and Hibbing at 1 p.m.

CL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

RCC 1 3 0 1 5 10 9 2

RCC pitching: Mitch Jaeger (W), 5 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 R, 5 K

RCC hitting: Shawn Pape, 1-for-3, R, BB; Kyle Young, 3-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs, R; Brian Voigt, 0-for-3; Kyal Williams, 0-for-3; Derek Hahn, 1-for-1, 2 R, 2 BBs; Dustin Fritz, R, BB; Reece Steckler, 2-for-3, HR, 4 RBIs, 2 R; Jeff Huth, 2-for-3, RBI, SB, 2 R; Winston Smith, 0-for-2, R

Northland 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 — 3 9 1

RCC 0 0 2 2 1 0 X — 5 8 2

RCC pitching: Kyal Williams (W), 4 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 K; Voigt (S), 2 2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 1 K

RCC hitting: Pape, 1-for-3, double, 2 R, SB, BB; Young, 2-for-4, 2 HR, 4 RBIs, 2 R; Brad Winkelman, 0-for-2; Hahn, 1-for-1, 3 BBs; Renne Araujo, 1-for-2; Steckler, 1-for-3, RBI; Fritz, 0-for-3; Aaron Fisher, 0-for-3; Smith, 1-for-2, double, R