Eagles help Senske to No. 700

New Ulm also takes first loss of season

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Eagles experienced a high when they defeated Park Center 5-1 to earn Jim Senske his 700th career win in the first gane of the New Ulm Invitational Baseball Tournament before suffering their first loss of the seaon, falling to Forest Lake 9-6.

New Ulm, now 13-1 on the season, will play Lakeville today at 11 a.m. at Johnson Park with Park Center and Forest Lake tangling at that same time at Mueller Park.

In the first game, right-hander Bob Wellmann struck out seven and allowed only two hits in the victory over the Pirates.

Eric Austvold and Kyle Marti each had two hits, with Auatvold belting a two-run home run in the second inning and ended up with three RBIs.

Pat Lemke was tagged with the loss for Park Center (11-5), allowing all five runs in four innings of work.

Park Center would achieve their only success against Wellmann in the first inning when the Eagle right-hander issued a two-out walk to Joel Williams, who swiped second. John Briskey's single to center scored Williams for a 1-0 lead.

"It was hard getting loose at first with the cold, and I left a curveball up (to Briskey)," Wellmann said.

But that would be the last time that Wellmann allowed a Pirate run as he only permitted three more baserunners the rest of the game and at one point retired nine straight Pirate hitters.

"I started to get my first-pitch strikes, which is key against a really good team like Park Center," Wellmann said. "I started to hit my spots -- I kept them off-stride and hit the corners a couple of times."

With Wellmann in charge on the mound, the Eagle bats went to work and quickly took care of business erasing that 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

Keith McClellan reached on an error by Park Center first baseman John Briskey, and a Nate Carroll sacrifice bunt advanced him to second.

Eric Austvold collected his first hit of the game with an RBI single to center to knot the game at 1-1.

Austvold stole second and went to third on a Derik Johnson ground out and trotted home on Kyle Marti's single. Blake Thorson followed with a single to center that moved Marti to third.

Matt Suess then legged out an infield single that allowed Marti to score for a 3-1 New Ulm lead.

The Eagles then added two more runs in the second when Nate Carroll singled. Pat Lemke then worked the count to Austvold to 1-1 before Austvold gave a Lemke fastball a new zip code with a shot over the fence in rightfield to pad the New Ulm lead to 5-1.

That would be all the scoring that New Ulm had, but all that they needed behind Wellmann.

"I did not have my best stuff tonight," Wellmann said. "But this was a big win -- it is not just the number (of 700), but Park Center was ranked 10th (in Class 3-A). This was a big win for everyone including coach Senske."

New Ulm then saw Forest Lake plate four runs in the top of the first in game two and add three runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth for a 9-6 win over the Eagles. New Ulm had four errors in the game.

Dusty Farasyn took the loss for New Ulm, allowing seven runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Right-hander Karl Young was the winning pitcher for the Rangers (8-5).

Pete Storm and Karl Young each had two hits for Forest Lake with Lance Overson driving in two runs.

Matt Suess had two hits for New Ulm. Keith McClellan tripled and Eric Austvold connected on his second home run in as many games.

The Rangers scored the four, first inning runs on consecutive singles by Storm and Young. Dusty Farasyn then walked Steve Carlisle to load the bases for Lance Overson, who singled in two runs. Overson later scored on a fielder's choice and a force-out plated the fourth run of the inning.

New Ulm came back with a run in the bottom of the third when Suess collected the first hit of the game with a single to center. A wild pitch, Josh Thorson's groundout and an errant pickoff throw by Young allowed Suess to score.

Forest Lake tagged on three more runs in the fourth on two Eagle errors and a Young double.

Austvold's solo shot over the fence in right field pulled New Ulm to within 7-2.

But the Rangers countered with two runs in the top of the fifth on an error and a single.

In the bottom of the fifth, McClellan led off with a triple and scored on a Carroll groundout. In the sixth, the Eagles pushed a single run across on a Josh Thorson run-scoring single before closing out with two runs in the seventh on a Forest Lake error and an RBI single by Blake Thorson.