New Ulm routs Saints

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Eric Austvold started and ended New Ulm High's scoring Thursday afternoon as the Eagles ran their South Central Conference mark to 8-2 and moved to a 10-3 overall record by pasting St. Peter 11-1 in baseball action at Johnson Park.

Austvold collected two hits and drove in six runs -- four coming on a grand slam with no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the 10-run lead rule in effect.

Travis Thorson, Rob Geistfeld and Andy Stolt also had two-hit games.

Stolt picked up the pitching win for New Ulm, yielding an unearned first-inning run. He struck out two while giving up six hits.

Adam TeBrake took the loss for St. Peter, going four innings and was charged with eight runs. Nick Nielson came in and gave up the final three runs without recording an out.

Tim Hoffmann had two hits for the Saints.

"Pitching and defense wins ballgames," said Eagle coach Jim Senske. "At Blue Earth (Tuesday, a 2-1 loss) they got good pitching and defense; we did not get the clutch hit. Today we started like we were going to be a little lazy but then we started hitting the ball hard and the game ended rather abruptly."

St. Peter (8-5, 4-4) would take a 1-0 lead in that first inning when Jake Anderson reached second on a two-base error with one out. After Stolt fanned Dustin Swenson for the second out, Hoffmann lined a single by Stolt's glove into center field to score Anderson for a 1-0 lead.

St. Peter would threaten in the third, getting runners on first and third with two outs before Stolt got out of the jam with a fly ball out.

In the bottom of the inning, New Ulm, which will host Park Center tonight at 7 p.m. and Lakeville at noon on Saturday, scored three times.

Stolt ignited the rally with a leadoff single. Matt Schmidt's bunt down the first base line was fielded by TeBrake but his throw went off the glove of first baseman Hoffmann, putting Eagles on first and third with no outs. Austvold tied the game at 1-1 with a single to center that scored pinch runner Dan Kitzberger. A fielder's choice put runners on second and third with one out before Craig Spelbrink's line-drive out to left scored Schmidt for a 2-1 lead. Thorson's double to left plated Jamie Hoffmann for a 3-1 cushion.

Stolt again worked out a jam in the fourth.

"Andy was fair today," commented Senske. "He was up in the strike zone but the thing that has hurt his pitching this spring is that we have not had enough work off the mound. We are either sitting out (because of the weather) or it is someone else's turn to pitch. They do not have good command of the strike zone yet because of that."

That lifted the Eagles as Geistfeld led off with a double to left and Stolt singled him to third. Kitzberger, courtesy running for Stolt, swiped second before Matt Schmidt reached on a fielder's choice allowing Gary Wurtzberger, courtesy running for Geistfeld, to score. A stolen base, an Austvold RBI ground out and a Spelbrink sacrifice fly made it a 6-1 lead for the Eagles.

The Eagles then ended the contest in the fifth. Brandon Rolloff reached on an error, stole second and scored on Geistfeld's single to end TeBrake's day. Nick Nielson plunked Stolt and Schmidt reached on an error to load the bases. Austvold then hammered a 2-2 Nielson hanging curveball deep over the fence in right field for an 11-1 win.

"He (Austvold, a sophomore) has been a nice player and has a chance to be a very good player by the time he is through here," said Senske. "We are 8-2 in the conference and if we beat Waseca and Fairmont in our next conference games, we will win the South Central Conference (Blue Earth and USC have three conference losses)."

ST.PETER 100 00 -- 1 6 1

NEW ULM 003 35 -- 11 9 3

WP-Stolt, LP-TeBrake. 2B-Thorson (NU), Geistfeld (NU). HR-Austvold (NU).