Eagles top St. James in ninth inning

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Landon Rewitzer's bases-loaded, two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Bryan Kamm from third and lifted the New Ulm Eagles to a 5-4 South Central Conference win over St. James Tuesday afternoon.

Tony Mielke was the winning pitcher for the Eagles (1-0, 1-1) going 5 1/3 innings in relief of starter Zach Barrett. Mielke did not allow a hit in his stint.

Tyler Kaus went the distance for St. James (0-1, 0-3) fanning six while permitting seven hits.

Kaus led the St. James hitting attack with three of the six Saints hits, including a two-run triple.

Joey Geistfeld, Mielke and Kamm each had two hits, with Kamm belting a double.

"This was an awesome win for us," Kamm said. He is one of only two players on this year's team with varsity experience from last year. "We struggled in the beginning of the game -- we did not capitalize with our scoring chances, but towards the end, we started to pick it up more."

Kamm led off the home half of the ninth inning with a slicing double to center field. St. James coach Dale Bannerman then had Kaus intentionally walk Josh Thorson and Mielke to load the bases with no outs. The strategy seemed like it was going to work as the right-handed Kaus struck out Joe Kuehl and Jonathan Curry for the first two outs. He then worked pinch-hitter Landon Rewitzer to an 0-2 count before he left a pitch too close to the strike zone and Rewitzer delivered a single to center for the win.

The single gave head coach Dave Curry his first win as head coach.

"The first win is always the toughest," he said. "And I was not sure that we were going to get it for a while. But the kids kept battling -- we played a little bit of New Ulm baseball and we came through at the end."

The Eagles, who play at Edina on Saturday, plated two unearned runs off of Kaus and the Saints in the bottom of the first inning. Geistfeld beat out an infield single and went to second on a passed ball. After Kamm popped out, Thorson slapped a ground ball to third baseman Jason Lewis, who fielded the ball cleanly. But his throw to first was in the dirt and was dropped by Rob Nessler, scoring Geistfeld. Mielke then brought in Thorson later with a base hit to center.

St. James cut the lead in half with a run in the top of third on a Kaus single, a stolen base and Jared Schwanz' RBI single to right field.

New Ulm took the run back in the bottom of the inning on a Kraus single, a Geistfeld sacrifice bunt and a run-scoring single by Kamm.

But St. James would plate three runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 4-3 lead and knock starter Barrett out of the game. Lewis doubled and scampered to third on Nessler's fly out to center. Lewis then stole home for a run prior to Barrett issuing consecutive one-out walks to Joe Krause and Mike Keech. Jared Schmitz' sacrifice bunt advanced the runners for Kaus, who drove in both runners with a triple to center field.

The Eagles knotted the game in the bottom of the fifth inning with the aid of a Saints error and a costly triple play that led to a run for New Ulm. Kamm, who reached base four times in the game, was safe on an error to start the inning and swiped second. Thorson walked and Mielke singled to load the bases with no outs. Pinch-hitter Curt Thoreson lined a shot to left that was caught by a diving Schmitz with Kamm tagging at third and scoring. However, Thorson and Mielke were caught off their bases to end the inning.

New Ulm then mounted a potential game-winning threat in the bottom of the seventh when Geistfeld led off with a single and Kamm walked putting runners on first and second with no outs. But Kaus got the next two hitters to ground into force outs before fanning Curry with the bases loaded to end the inning.

"My thinking (in not bunting the runners over) was that we had the three and four hitters up and maybe I should have bunted," Curry said. "But I wanted to give the hitters a crack at it. We hit the ball hard but right at people. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I probably should have."

But Rewitzer saved the day two innings later with his game-winning hit.

"I thought that Bryan (Kamm) and Tony (Mielke) had nice games today," Curry said. "And JJ (Germscheid) had a nice game at third. Zach was okay; he just got a little tired out there."

St. James plays at Fairmont Monday.

ST. JAMES 001 300 000 -- 4 6 2

NEW ULM 201 010 001 -- 5 7 0

WP: Mielke. LP: Kaus. 2B: Kaus (SJ), Kamm (NU). 3B: Kaus (SJ).

St. Mary's 12, GFW 2

SLEEPY EYE -- Sleepy Eye St. Mary's pounded 13 hits and five doubles in the Tomahawk Conference baseball win over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Tuesday.

Mark Hillesheim got the win for the Knights, striking out four and allowing three hits in five innings.

For St. Mary's, Matt Gangelhoff had a double and two RBIs and Matt Mathiowetz had a double and four runs scored. Cole Helget went 3-for-3 with three doubles and Steve Seidl went 2-for-3. Dain Mouldan went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Cody Loverude had a double for GFW and James Panning and John Pagel each had a single.

St. Mary's plays Wabasso Thursday at Milroy, and GFW plays at Sleepy Eye Thursday.

Wabasso 3, BLH 0

WABASSO -- Anthony Rohlik from Wabasso went all seven innings with eight strikeouts, two walks and hits and zero runs as the Rabbits topped Buffalo Lake-Hector in Tomahawk Conference baseball action.

Andrew Wakefield from BLH pitched six innings with two strikeouts, seven walks, three runs and one of those was earned.

Wabasso (3-0, 3-0) will play Sleepy Eye St. Mary's Thursday in Milroy.

BLH will host Minnesota Valley Lutheran Thursday.

Springfield 13,

McLeod West 8

SPRINGFIELD -- Troy Runck was 4-for-4 with three RBI and scored two runs for Springfield in the win over McLeod West 13-8 in Tomahawk action Tuesday.

Pitching for Springfield was Brandon Wilhelmi and Andy Moritz. Wilhelmi gave up four, struck out and walked three. Moritz gave up three with two strikeouts.

Reggie Vacek pitched four innings for McLeod West.

Wilhelmi was 4-for-5 with one RBI and two stolen bases. Bill Roiger was 3-for-4 with two RBI and Zach Sturm was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Taylor Schutte from McLeod West was 2-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored. Darrin Rosenau and Tom Bullert were 2-for-4 with one run.

Springfield (2-2, 2-2) will host Sleepy Eye Monday.

Sleepy Eye 8,

Redwood Valley 1

SLEEPY EYE -- Jason Schueler from Sleepy Eye gave up four hits with six strikeouts and zero walks in their defeat of Redwood Valley in Tomahawk conference Tuesday.

Mark Yrjo was the pitcher from Redwood Valley.

Tyler Jensen and Rob Peterson from Sleepy Eye were 2-for-3 with Jensen hitting a home run and Peterson hitting a double. Dan Petersen was 2-for-2 with one double and Schueler was 1-for-3 with two RBI.

Sleepy Eye (3-1, 1-1) will host Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Thursday.