MLBO advances to championship

By HANS BIEBL

Journal Sports Writer

MANKATO -- With a steady offensive barrage, the Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin Wolverines defeated the Springfield Tigers 9-7 Wednesday night in Mankato under the bright lights of Franklin Rogers Park in a Section 2-1A elimination baseball game.

MLBO scored early and often and then weathered a five-run Tiger rally in the sixth inning to hang on to the win. By doing so, the Wolverines advance to the Section championship game tomorrow evening in Mankato against St. Mary's of Sleepy Eye, a team which beat MLBO earlier in the play-offs.

Trailing 9-2 after the fifth inning, Springfield mounted a threatening come back in which they came up a pair of runs short from tying the game.

Brian Hauth singled to begin the inning. Jacob Marz followed with stand-up double to deep centerfield, which scored Hauth from first. Marz would eventually score on a wild pitch from the winning Wolverine pitcher Mark DeYounge.

After two Tiger singles and one hit batsman left the bases jammed, Springfield's Adam Schmid hit a two-run single up the middle. Ryan Sturm capped off the rally with a sacrifice fly, which scored Springfield's fifth run of the inning.

But the Tiger rally was too little, too late as MLBO had scored nine runs in the first four innings.

The loss ends the Tigers' (18-8) season. "Give the credit to [MLBO]," said Springfield coach Bob Fink. "They put the ball in play and did the little things right that we didn't."

The Wolverines began the game with a two-run first inning. Tyler Hildebrandt began the inning with a single, and Adam Wright, who was 3-for-3 in the game, followed with a double to the left-center gap. DeYounge's single down the leftfield line scored both Hildebrandt and Wright.

MLBO scored three more runs in the second inning, an inning in which two Tiger wild pitches, one walk and one error allowed the Wolverine runs to score.

MLBO finished their scoring for the night in the third inning by scoring three runs on two hits and four walks.

DeYounge got the win for the Wolverines (16-8). He pitched 5 and 1-3 innings and allowed seven earned runs while striking out seven.

"We gotta win two tomorrow against a real good team" said MLBO coach Shawn Nass. "We gotta put the ball in play. This is where we want to be. We have a chance to go to state."

Schmid led the Tiger bats with a 2-for-3 night and two RBI. Ryan Sturm and Marz each added a RBI.

SHS 100 015 0 -- 7 6 2

MLBO 233 100 x -- 9 10 4