Eagles trip

Park Center

7-2 for 13th

win in a row

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Three more hits, three less errors, three first-inning runs.

The New Ulm Eagles jumped to a 4-0 lead and rode the five-hit performance of right-hander Ryan Wellmann to win their 13th straight game, downing Park Center 7-2 Friday night in nonconference baseball.

Wellmann struck out 10, including the final five outs of the game, in picking up the win. He allowed five hits while walking three.

Kevin Cogswell, a sophomore, took the loss for Park Center (4-10). He allowed eight hits but had four costly errors behind him. Three of the four boots resulted in New Ulm runs.

Jason Schmitz and Evan Jacobs each had two hits for the Eagles with Scott O'Brien driving in two runs. Schmitz and Jamie Hoffmann each belted a triple for New Ulm.

The Eagles, now 13-2 on the year, put that winning streak on the line at 1 p.m. today when they host defending state champion Hastings at Johnson Park.

""No. 1, we are thankful that they came down here to play," said Eagles coach Jim Senske. "They have a young club (two sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup), but they are going to be salty by next year and extremely tough by the following year. Plus, it was fun to have three former players (Jeff Stoll, Chad Stoll and Chad Schmidt) that you are now coaching against.

"We are concerned about what kind of an attack we can get against good pitching and this kid (Cogswell) is going to be their No. 1 pitcher going into the region," said Senske.

New Ulm took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Schmitz legged out an infield hit and Jacobs' bunt was booted by Cogswell. O'Brien made that first error hurt when he doubled to right to score both Schmitz and Jacobs. A passed ball moved O'Brien to third and Travis Thorson's sacrifice fly plated O'Brien.

'The errors are something that we have had problems with all season," said Park Center coach Jeff Stoll. "We have some young kids out there and they make mistakes. It gets frustrating a little bit. Our pitching has been coming along. We had Mounds View (state ranked) 2-2 in the sixth inning, so we can play with the best in the state."

But the errors.

Again in the second inning, an error was taken advantage of by a hungry Eagle team.

Hoffmann reached on an error to lead off the inning. Jacobs' one-out single and a walk to O'Brien loaded the bases before a fielder's choice made it 4-0.

The Pirates broke through in the third off Wellmann when Cogswell was safe on a fielder's choice and scored on a Tony Kempf double.

The Eagles matched that run in the bottom of the fourth when Hoffmann drilled a triple to deep right field to lead off the inning and he scored when Schmitz reached on a throwing error.

A Ryan Bullock single, a balk on Wellmann, an infield ground out and a Cogswell base hit cut the lead to 5-2 in the fourth inning.

Wellmann,who is usually sharp, did not have his best stuff despite the 10-strikeout night.

"I think that part of that is that he was to pumped tonight, he gets pumped up for Twin Cities teams," commented Senske. "And second, it was tough for him to get his curve ball in a good location tonight because of the wind. He has been sharper than he was tonight, but the wind makes it difficult to keep the ball low; you tend to overthrow a bit."

New Ulm used a one-out Isaac Larson single in the fifth to score twice. Larson's base hit was followed one out later by Schmitz' triple to right. Jacobs' single brought home Schmitz with the final Eagle run.

"Right now, we are running out of pitching," said Senske. "We are going to throw (Andy) Stolt and O"Brien (against Hastings) and I do no know what we are going to do on Monday (hosting Fairmont). We may have to throw a B-squader on Monday."

In the junior varsity game, Jace Marti drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning as New Ulm edged Park Center 2-1.

Marti went 2-for-4 for the Eagles.

Chris Cariveau got the win for New Ulm, going the distance and allowing five hits and striking out six.

PARK CENTER 001 010 0 -- 2 5 4

NEW ULM 310 120 x -- 7 8 1

W--Wellmann. L--Cogswell. 2B--O"Brien (NU). 3B--Hoffmann (NU), Schmitz (NU).