Eagles shut out Worthington

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Following a 2-1 upset loss to ninth-seeded Chaska on Saturday in the Section 2-3A playoffs, the New Ulm Eagles' baseball team faced the start of a tough road back in defending their sectional title.

But Tuesday night, the Eagles started its comeback as they plated four second inning runs and added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth enroute to a 5-0 whitewashing of Worthington in a losers' bracket game.

Righthander Bob Wellmann picked up the win going the distance. He struck out 10 and allowed six hits.

Sean O'Brien, who came into the game against New Ulm riding a three-game winning streak, took the loss for the Trojans who finish their season at 14-8. The righthander struck out three Eagle hitters and gave up eight hits.

Eric Austvold and Jamie Hoffmann each had two hits for the Eagles who stay alive with an 18-3 record. Hoffmann had a double with centerfielder Eric Austvold collecting two doubles and Dan Kitzberger contributing an RBI triple.

The Eagles will play the winner of the Mankato West-Prior Lake game (which was rained out Tuesday) at Johnson Park on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Wellmann allowed seven hits and fanned 10 in the Eagles opening round win over Willmar on Saturday, was put to the test right away by the Trojan hitters. Jake Scheidt and Cole Johnson rapped singles and Ethan Noble reached on an error to load the bases with no outs.

But Wellmann dug down deep, striking out the next two hitters before ending the threat by getting Andy Harberts on a pop-out to shortstop.

It was the only real threat that Worthington had.

"I was pretty hyped for the game," Wellmann said. "I was leaving pitches up (in the strike zone) -- if you leave a pitch up, they just stick the bat out. I knew that I had to bare down, hit my spots, and let my defense do the work."

"I don't know if he warmed up as much as he normally does," said Eagle coach Jim Senske about his junior righthander who threw 105 pitches in the game on Saturday. "We really don't want him throwing a lot of (warm-up) pitches. He is our go-to guy -- he gets tough when he needs to. He did that in the first inning when he needed that."

New Ulm would piece together four second-inning hits -- three of them for extra bases -- to push across four runs .

After Dusty Fleck led off by reaching on an error by Trojan shortstop Cole Johnson, Dan Kitzberger put a charge into a 1-0 O'Brien offering, drilling an RBI triple to centerfield.

Blake Thorson's sacrifice fly to medium deep centerfield scored Kitzberger for a 2-0 lead.

Eric Austvold's two-out double -- his first of two doubles in the game -- proceeded a Keith McClellan run-scoring single.

McClellan stole second and scored on Jamie Hoffmann's double off of the fence in rightfield.

"We worked a lot in practice this week on going with the pitch," said the senior shortstop. "They threw a junker at us today -- we finally came out today and hit the ball. The (lack of hitting in two games -- three runs and 7-of-46 at the plate) way we picked up the hitting was nice -- it was kind of a gut-check time."

Meanwhile Wellmann was in control of Trojan hitters allowing only four hits through the final six innings

"He spotted his pitches more -- he got up with some pitches (early) but settled down after that," Senske said. He was also happy with the hitting of the Eagles that maybe has shaken off their collective slump so far in the tournament.

"We hit the ball well and four of them were for extra bases," Senske said. "I think that we are on the verge of breaking out (of the slump)."

The Eagles would use a walk in the bottom of the sixth to Isaac Forstner and Austvold's second double to score their final run of the game and keep their season alive.

'"This team can come back and win six more games," said Hoffmann who was drafted by Des Moines of the United States Hockey League recently.

WORTHINGTON 000 000 0 -- 0-6-3

NEW ULM 040 001 X -- 5-7-1

WP: Wellmann. LP: O'Brien. 2B: Austvold 2 (NU), Hoffmann (NU). 3B: Kitzberger (NU).