Wellmann stifles Bison

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Coaches will tell you that the toughest game of postseason play is the first game.

Monday afternoon, the New Ulm Eagles survived their initial contest of 2AAA with a 5-0 win over Buffalo.

The game was a completion of a rain-suspended game from Saturday.

Ryan Wellmann (9-1) got the win for New Ulm (18-3), going the distance, striking out nine. He gave up three hits and walked only two.

Brady Borkoski was tagged with the loss for the Bison (0-20) as he was charged with three Eagle runs. Ian Keen gave up New Ulm's final two tallies.

Scott O'Brien led New Ulm, going 4-for-4 an driving in two runs. Evan Jacobs and Craig Spelbrink each added two hits.

"We should not have been looking past this team," said Eagle head coach Jim Senske, despite Buffalo's winless record. "They did not play in the South Central Conference; they played in the North Suburban Conference which is a better league. Probably a good indication of their (Buffalo) ability is that they played Monticello to 6-5 and 5-3 losses. They have had a lot of close ballgames that they lost. They do not have a great attack, but in this game we didn't either."

But it appeared that when the game began on Saturday that the Eagles were going to have a Buffalo feed. Jacobs led off with a single to center and took second on Jason Schmitz' sacrifice bunt. Jacobs trotted home on O'Brien's RBI single to center, the first of four safeties for the senior second baseman.

New Ulm added two more runs in the third when O'Brien laced a one-out single and Spelbrink reached on a two-out base hit. A walk by Borkoski loaded the bases for Mitch Stueber, who drilled a two-run single to left field for a 3-0 lead before the rain came.

The Bison would threaten in the fourth and fifth innings off Wellmann. Aric Bethke led off the fourth with a double for the first hit of the game for the Bison, but Wellmann got Luke Rassett on a groundout and fanned both Luke Conzet and Eric Whittacker to end the inning.

In the fifth, Whittacker reached on an error and Keen singled. But Garrett Olson fanned and when Eagle catcher Al Wurtzberger found Keen too far off of first, he picked him off for a big double play.

The Eagles tallied their final run in the sixth inning as Travis Boddy walked, took second on a passed ball, and scored on Schmitz single to right field. A stolen base moved Schmitz to second before O'Brien collected his fourth hit of the game to score Schmitz for a 5-0 lead.

"We had a hard time adjusting to the pitcher today," said O'Brien. " We struggled; it was frustrating. He had us off-balance today."

But O'Brien feels that the Eagles can win the Section 2AAA title again. "We have good pitching and if we hit well, we will do OK."

BUFFALO 000 000 0 -- 0 3 0

NEW ULM 102 001 x -- 5 10 2

WP--Wellmann, LP--Borkoski. 2B--Bethke (B).