Â-By CINDY PETERSON/Bismarck Tribune

MINOT - Williston coach Chip Devlin refused to make excuses for his team on Thursday after the Keybirds lost 9-6 to the Grand Forks Royals in a losers' bracket game of the Class A state American Legion baseball tournament.

The Keybirds lost a close game to rival Minot in Wednesday's opening round. Williston had less than 12 hours to recover as it was scheduled for Thursday morning's game against Grand Forks.

That was a moot point to Devlin. His No. 5-seeded Keybirds ended their season at 33-15 at Corbett Field. No. 7 Grand Forks improved to 17-21 and plays third-seeded Fargo today, which beat No. 7 seed Devils Lake on Thursday.

"I don't even think about using that as an excuse," Devlin said. "This is it. If you lose, you go home. That should have pumped us up. If we would have played like we did (Wednesday) night, we would have whomped through this, no big deal. But we didn't man up."

The Keybirds were inconsistent on the mound. Tyler Burnett and Jarrett Duchsher combined to issue nine walks and gave up 11 hits. Burnett threw 81 pitches in three innings.

He ran into problems in the third inning when Grand Forks sent 10 hitters to the plate and scored five runs.

Burnett issued six of his seven walks in the frame. Burnett was relieved by Duchsher in the fourth.

"Tyler is usually dead on the money with strikes," Devlin said. "We were hoping to win this game and bring him back another game."

The Keybirds stranded 11 baserunners and committed three errors. One of the more glaring miscues came during Grand Forks' third-inning rally. Casey Purpur rapped a two-run single to score David Nelson and Keith Howe. Brett Thompson and Purpur advanced when Williston center fielder Jeff Skadeland mishandled the ball.

In the seventh, Grand Forks' Ryne Anderson got caught in a run down between first and second base. Williston first baseman Tyler Sorenson could have applied the tag for the third out, but instead attempted to throw out Thompson, who was running home. Thompson was called safe.

In all, Devlin thought his team made too many mental errors.

"The physical errors cost us big," Devlin said, "but the mental errors � Physical errors, we're human, I can live with that, but the mental errors is a lack of care. That bothers me."

Quinn Devlin led Williston at the plate by going 2-for-5 with a two-run home run in the eighth. Skadeland hit a double and had two runs batted in.

David Nelson led Grand Forks by going 4-for-5 with a double. Purpur went 1-for-4 with three RBIs and Ryne Anderson 2-for-4 with an RBI. Michael Kraft earned the pitching win, and David Nelson came in to throw the final four innings.

"Our hitters did a good job of being selective," Grand Forks coach Gabe Dahl said. "Today, we took advantage of people's mistakes. David Nelson came in and threw strikes. Our defense made a lot of plays because the ball was put in play."

Grand Forks is 3-0 against Williston this year.

Williston 030 000 021 � 6 7 3

GF 105 010 11x � 9 11 0

Tyler Burnett, Jarrett Duchsher (4) and Doug Richter; Michael Kraft, David Nelson (6) and Nelson, Kraft (6). W-Kraft; L-Burnett. HR-Williston, Quinn Devlin.

Highlights: W � Quinn Devlin 2-for-5, HR, 4 RBIs; Alex Hanson double; Jeff Skadeland double, 2 RBIs; Nate Wingerter double. GF � Ryne Anderson 2-for-4, RBI; David Nelson 4-for-5, double, Casey Purpur 1-for-4, 3 RBIs.

Records:Grand Forks 17-21 overall; Williston 33-15.

Fargo 7, Devils Lake 4

Zach Braaten belted an in-the-park grand slam home run to right-center in the top of the ninth inning to help No. 3 Fargo come from behind to defeat No. 7 Devils Lake 7-4. Braaten finished the contest 2-for-4 with five RBIs.

Fargo (39-20) continues today in the losers' bracket. Devils Lake ended its season at 19-32.

Christopher Hoerth went deep for Devils Lake with a solo shot.

Fargo 000 001 015 � 7 9 1

DL 000 111 010 � 4 10 1

Maxwell Rusch, Jacob Nystrom and Brady Meyers; Josh Greene, Ethan Kleinknecht, James Olderbak and Christopher Hoerth. W-Nystrom; L-Olderbak. HR-Fargo, Zach Braaten; DL, Hoerth.

Highlights: F � Christian Barnum 2-for-5; Braaten 2-for-4, 5 RBIs. DL � Kleinknecht 2-for-5; Hoerth 2-for-2, RBI; David Gutschmidt 2-for-4, RBI.

Records: Fargo 39-20 overall; DL 19-32 overall.