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May 5, 2000
Eagles win 9th straightBy JIM BASTIAN Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM -- Thursday afternoon, New Ulm's Andy Stolt did what St. James' Luke Hagen didn't do. Stolt, making his first varsity start on the mound for the Eagles, worked out of trouble in three of the first four innings, and New Ulm bats pounded out 12 hits as they won their ninth straight game with an 11-2 win over the Saints in South Central Conference baseball. Travis Thorson paced the hitting attack for New Ulm (9-2, 7-0) with three hits and two RBIs. Scott O'Brien and Jamie Hoffmann both added two hits as each rapped a triple. Al Wurtzberger and O'Brien each doubled, with Evan Jacobs and Craig Spelbrink collecting triples. "He pitched out of some trouble and pitched out of some jams," said Eagles' head coach Jim Senske. "We have to have pitchers like Andy and (Craig) Spelbrink and (Scott) O'Brien for next week. We play seven games in eight days and several of them are going to be toughies." Thursday, it was Stolt who was tough when he had to be. In the first inning, the right-hander allowed two, one-out singles but recorded a strike out (one of five in the game) and an ground out to end the inning. Again, in the second the Saints (2-8, 1-6) got two bunt singles and a walk to load the bases with no outs. Again Stolt rose to the situation, getting two pop-outs and then setting down the final out on a called third strike. Meanwhile, New Ulm took advantage of their scoring opportunities. In the first inning, Jacobs walked and scored on O'Brien's one-out triple. O'Brien then scored on Wurtzberger's sacrifice fly. The Eagles would send nine men to the plate in the second inning and push across five runs. Singles by Stolt and Hoffmann preceded Jacobs' two-run triple. Jacobs trotted home on a Hagen wild pitch. A steal of second coupled with Wurtzberger's double upped the score to 6-0 and ended Hagen's mound day. St. James reliever Colter Johnson was greeted by Thorson's first-pitch double that plated Wurtzberger. O'Brien's one-out double and a Thorson's single in the fourth increased the Eagle lead to 8-0. St. James would tally two runs off southpaw Drew Waibel in the sixth on a Dustin Kulseth bunt single (three of the Saints' hits were bunts), and a walk to Danon Anderson resulted in an RBI single by Tyler Olson and a Brett Olson sacrifice fly. Spelbrink's lead-off triple in the sixth ignited a three-run inning for New Ulm. A Micade Thordson base hit, a Ryan Wellmann sacrifice fly and a hit batsman pushed New Ulm's final three runs across. "Our hitting was there today," said Senske. "We had some clutch hits early in the game; we are very pleased with the offense that we have been generating lately. "The win over (Mankato) East was big, but we need to have good pitching and defense consistently. We have gotten that." New Ulm Public's B-squad (7-2) took apart the Saints 11-1 in a game shortened by the 10-run rule. Chris Cariveau picked up the win for the Eagles and Dusty Fleck hit a three-run homerun, his third of the season. The New Ulm C-squad remained unbeaten at 9-0 with a 10-1 win over the Saints. Andy Budahn struck out seven in three innings to pick up the win, and teammate Eric Austvold added a home run, a double, and four RBIs. ST. JAMES 000 002 0 -- 2 9 1 NEW ULM 250 103 x -- 11 12 0 WP--Stolt, LP--Hagen. 2B--Wurtzberger (NU), Thorson (NU), O'Brien (NU). 3B--O'Brien (NU), Jacobs (NU), Hoffmann (NU), Spelbrink (NU).
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