New Ulm High routs St. James, 12-1

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM - Bob Wellmann tossed a four-inning no-hitter and New Ulm used timely hitting and took advantage of four St. James errors to bury the Saints 12-1 Thursday afternoon in South Central Conference baseball.

Wellmann allowed only one runner in his four innings of work, that a two-out walk to Tyler Olson in the first inning. The sophomore recorded eight of the 12 outs on strike outs, and Eagle outfielders had no putouts in the game.

Luke Hagen was tagged with the loss for St. James (1-2, 0-2), giving up seven runs in 2 1/3 innings of work.

Eric Austvold had two of New Ulm's eight hits, with Jamie Hoffmann belting a three-run homer in the third.

But is was the right arm of Wellmann that lifted the shadow of a 5-1 loss to USC earlier in the week. "We were shocked after that loss," said Wellmann, who improved to 2-0 on the season. "I think that we went to that game thinking that it is only USC and we can 10-run them just by showing up. But I think that the loss refocused us as a team and popped our heads a little bit."

New Ulm, after stranding two runners in the first inning, scored three runs on just one hit but were aided by two St. James' errors.

Andy Stolt drew a one-out walk and went to second on a two-out Travis Thorson single. Austvold followed by lofting a lazy fly ball near St. James' first baseman Kory Andersen who dropped the ball, allowing Stolt to score for a 1-0 lead. Hoffmann followed with a ground ball to third baseman Olson who fielded the ball cleanly. But his throw to Andersen at first sailed past him as Thorson scored. Austvold trotted home on a Hagen wild pitch.

The Eagles then effectively ended the game in the third inning, sending 10 men to the plate and scoring seven times.

Craig Spelbrink walked and both he and Rob Geistfeld were safe on an error. Both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Thorson, and Stolt's base hit to right plated Spelbrink. A walk to Matt Schmidt ended Hagen's day on the mound. Reliever Matt Ness plunked Travis Boddy for force in New Ulm's fifth run of the game.

Austvold's two-run single just inside of first made it 7-0 before Hoffmann unloaded on Ness pitch and drove it over the fence in left field for a 10-0 cushion.

After Wellmann struck out the side in the top of the fourth, the Eagles added two more runs in the bottom of the inning on a Dusty Fleck two-run single.

St. James scored once off reliever Mike Grossmann in the top of the fifth to spoil the shutout.

"We attacked the ball and were patient at the plate today," said Eagle coach Jim Senske. "They gave us some runs and we earned some runs. Bob pitched a nice game for us and I think that we are going to be good defensively (two errors in the game, both in the seventh inning). But my concern is are we going to hit the quality pitcher. We have games with Minnetonka (on Saturday) and Blue Earth (at home Monday) and are we going to get that quality pitching ourselves."

"We had better be focused because we have big games coming up this week," commented Wellmann.

New Ulm's B-squad won 14-4 to improve to 3-0. Andy Budahn was the winning pitcher.

Matt Suess and Kyle Marti each had three hits, Suess driving in three runs and Marti two. Derek Johnson had two hits and five RBI. Andy Kamm also had two hits and two RBI.

The Eagles will next face the Minnetonka Skippers Saturday.

ST. JAMES 000 01 -- 1 1 4

NEW ULM 037 2x -- 12 8 2

WP-Wellmann, LP-Hagen. HR-Hoffmann (NU).