The two pitchers who showed up to the ballpark in Mapleton Monday night deserved to win a game.

On any other night either pitcher would have easily won, but Ned Kalis of United South Central and Eli Walters of Minnesota Lake faced each other Monday, and Kalis got the best of Walters in an epic pitchers’ duel in a 2-1, nine-inning win.

Kalis threw a complete game one-hitter against the Royals and he was nearly matched by Walters who threw a three-hitter.

The two hurlers combined for 31 strikeouts in the game.

Kalis had a perfect game going until the fifth inning when he allowed a walk which later came around to score on a sacrifice fly to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.

The Rebels responded in the sixth inning when William Huper scored on a wild pitch after he reached on a single to break up the no-hitter Walters had going.

Kalis kept going strong but lost his no-hit bid in the eighth inning on an infield single. Kalis settled for 16 strikeouts and a one-hitter as Jake Bonsack knocked in the winning run on a single through the left side of the infield to score Eric Lackey in the top of the ninth inning. But that wasn’t even easy as Lackey had to dive head first into first base in order to reach safely.

“Ned threw hard and the other kid threw hard,” USC head coach Pat Frank said. “Ned’s curveball was breaking about a foot and a half.”

After some minor tweaking during a bullpen session, Frank and Kalis decided that Kalis needed to not overthrow his curveball as he had throughout much of the season.

Walters, not to be out done, struck out 15 hitters in his first start back from having his appendix removed.

Kalis’ start left everyone impressed.

“He wanted the ball,” Frank said. “You can’t ask for anything better. I was really impressed that he wasn’t coming off the field.”

USC 2, Minn. Lake 1, 9 innings

USC – 000 001 001 – 2 3 1

Minn. Lake – 000 010 000 – 1 1 0

WP – Ned Kalis 9 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 16 K

LP – Eli Walters 9 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 15 K