Eagles lose first game of season

By ANDY ROGERS

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- It was the first time the New Ulm Eagles had the game on the line at bottom of the seventh at home all year.

After going down 7-1 by the middle of the third inning, the Eagles crawled back for an 8-8 tie by the sixth inning.

But it wasn't enough.

New Ulm lost its first game of the season 9-8 to the South Central Conference rival Fairmont Cardinals.

"This is unheard of," Fairmont coach Jim Utermarck said. "It's the biggest game for (Fairmont) in a long time time."

The Eagles (14-1, 11-1) still win the South Central Conference, but they are no longer undefeated.

"If you can have a strategic loss this might be a good loss for us, because we had the conference won," Eagle coach Jim Senske said. "What we were trying to do is save some pitching for the weekend when we play two metro schools. Our guys that did start had to step up and pitch and we didn't pitch real well."

The Eagles will travel the the Twin Cities this weekend to play Mounds View and Edina.

"If there is such a thing as a good time to lose a ball game -- this was as good a time as any," Senske said. "As much as we hate to lose and as much as we'd like to go undefeated -- we'll be fine. Where this could hurt us is the seedings."

The third inning was the killer for the Eagles; particularly for the pitchers. Chris Cariveau started the game for the Eagles, but after giving up three walks, two hits -- including an RBI triple -- he was pulled in favor of Tyson Anderson.

The first batter Anderson faced hit a home run, and it didn't stop there. He hit a batter, gave up a two-run double, a balk, and a walk before Bob Wellmann came in to salvage what was left of the seven-run inning.

"Neither (Cariveau or Anderson) was feeling real well," Senske said. "But you got to give credit to opposition. Not only did the hit the early (pitchers). We had our number one pitcher in there when they scored the winning run. The opposition did what they had to do to beat us, but we should win the game when we score eight runs if our pitching is doing their job."

The Eagles faced two lefties all day -- Derrek Goerndt and Mike Berhow.

Goerndt struck out six, gave up eight hits, a homerun, and he walked two. He gave up five runs.

Berhow allowed three runs and four hits and he walked one in the final two innings.

Berhow grabbed the win, but it was the starting pitcher who made the dramatic double-play at the end. He caught a short fly ball at first and tagged out the runner at first.

"He' hasn't played first base all year," Utermarck said. "I didn't want to take his bat out of there or put him in the outfield. He made a great play at the end there."

The Eagles crawled back out of the surprising deficit, and by the sixth inning, the game was tied at 8-8.

"I was real pleased with the comeback after being down 7-1 and we kept chipping away," Senske said. "Offensively we did fine -- got like 13 hit off their pitchers."

Dan Kitzberger went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs, including the game-tying RBI.

"He played a heck of a game," Utermarck said. "I was debating with my assistant coach at the bottom of the sixth; I said 'Aw man let's walk him -- this guy's hit the ball hard every time.' And sure enough he comes through and ties the game up."

Dusty Fleck had a huge triple in the sixth, which drove in two runs. He went 2-for-3 and scored two runs.

Jamie Hoffmann went 1-for-3 with a homerun and another run scored after getting on base on a fielder's choice.

In the seventh inning, Fairmont scored the winning run off a two-out double by Goerndt.

"In that last inning we played to win," Utermarck said. "We didn't have anything to lose.

"I think we may have surprised them. I know they're always prepared. They play teams that are so much better than us; it's probably hard to get up for us. But I don't want to take anything away from our kids -- we played our hearts out."

The Eagles had one error on a tough ground ball, which proved costly in the sixth. The Cardinals had none.

"That's like the second game of the year we haven't had any errors," Utermarck said.

Fairmont finishes their regular season at .500. They finish 8-8 overall and 6-6 in the South Central Conference.

"New Ulm is the best," Utermarck said. "If you can play with New Ulm, you can play with a lot of people. "