St. Mary's routs MLBO for return state trip

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

MANKATO -- They're back!!!

Chad Armbruster struck out 14 Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin batters in 5 2-3 innings of work and Sleepy Eye St. Mary's offense scored five runs in the first inning as the Knights repeated as Section 2-1A champions, pounding the Wolverines 9-2 Thursday afternoon at Franklin Rogers Park.

The senior right-hander allowed only one Wolverine hit -- that a questionable one-out infield single by Mark DeYounge in the sixth-- as he improved his season mark to 6-0 and the Knights upped their mark to 17-8.

Dusty Schroeder took the loss for MLBO (16-9) going four innings and giving up nine runs on nine hits.

Dusty Mangen and Randy Braun each had two hits for the Knights with Braun driving in three runs and Mangen plating two.

Both of the MLBO runs came via walks by Armbruster in the sixth

The Knights will play in the Class 1A state tournament at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Mini-Met in Jordan against the Section 4-1A champion.

"We got those five runs (in the first inning) and any time that you have a pitcher like Chad (Armbruster) or a Darrin (Haala) you have to feel pretty confident about that," said Knights coach Bruce Woitas. "Anytime that you can jump on a team like that in a game like this -- that is a big plus. You have your best man on the mound and it forces them to battle back."

The Knights scored all the runs that Armbruster needed in that first inning off of Wolverine right-hander Dusty Schroeder. Andy Cook singled to center and courtesy runner Matt Gangelhoff quickly swiped second. Armbruster was hit by a pitch before a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. Haala was then given an intentional walk to set up a potential inning-ending double play but the strategy backfired.

Mangen laced a two-run single to center, and when Wolverine center fielder Tyler Hildebrandt let the ball roll under his glove, Woitas waved in Haala for a 3-0 lead.

A second wild pitch by Schroeder and Randy Braun's sacrifice fly to center made it 4-0.

Brett Braulick followed by collecting the only extra-base hit of the game when he sliced a double down the left-field line and scored on J.J. Helget's bloop single to center.

"I was not worried about the (five-day) layoff," commented Woitas. "I felt that we needed some rest and actually had some good practices. We had some things to work on because some of our previous tournament games (seven errors in their last game against MLBO, a 4-3 win) we did not play that well.We needed the practices."

The Knights scored a single run in the bottom of the third when Darrin Haala legged out an infield single and scampered to second on a passed ball. A Mangen fly out to center moved Haala to third and he scored on a Braun suicide squeeze bunt.

Meanwhile, Armbruster was dominating MLBO hitters. Of the first 12 outs of the game, nine where by Armbruster strike outs, including three each in the second and fourth innings.

"I felt pretty good out there," said Armbruster, who threw 107 pitches, 63 for strikes. "I kind of got tired out there late. The offense really pulled through and scored some runs."

"Chad pitched well," commented Woitas. "His pitch count started to get up there late in the game. He got the ball up and kind of lost his focus but we have a Darrin (Haala) to come in and close it out, that helps."

St. Mary's added three runs in the fourth when Brian Gangelhoff singled to right and went to second on a Matt Mathiowetz bunt single. The third wild pitch by Schroeder moved both runners into scoring position. Andy Cook's sacrifice fly upped the lead to 7-0. Armbruster's fly ball to center was dropped and Mangen came through with two out with a ground single to center that plated Mathiowetz.

Braun's single and an error on the play -- the third of four in the game by MLBO -- made it 9-0.

MLBO scored twice in the sixth inning. DeYounge reached on that questionable infield single. Armbruster then fanned Schroeder before issuing four consecutive walks forcing in two runs.

Haala took over and retired four straight batters to end the game.

'When you have pitchers that are as successful as Chad and Darrin (combined 12-0 record) this year), those two have been very successful in their high school careers," Woitas said. "You feel pretty good about that."

And Woitas said last year's state tournament experience -- finishing second in Class 1A -- helped this year "This is our fourth trip to the section finals (2-2) so that experience helps. We have played in this game four years and we knew what we had to do."

"The playoff experience is huge," Armbruster said. "I have been in the playoffs every year since my freshman year. We know what we have to do."

MLBO 000 002 0--2 1 4

ST. MARY'S 501 300 x--9 10 0

WP: Chad Armbruster.LP: Dusty Schroeder. 2B: Braulick (SESM).