Eagles blank Forest Lake

after 1-0 loss to Brainerd

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

MINNEAPOLIS -- New Ulm's Andy Stolt tossed a two-hitter and the Eagles made all the right moves behind him as New Ulm advanced to the consolation championship with a 3-0 shutout over Forest Lake in a loser's bracket game at Siebert Field.

Earlier in the day, New Ulm lost a hard-fought 1-0 game to defending state 3-A champion Brainerd at Midway Stadium.

New Ulm, now 22-4 on the season, will play Maple Grove, a 3-2 winner over Stillwater, for the consolation title at noon today at Midway Stadium.

Stolt struck out three, did not walk a batter and was backed by stellar defense by the Eagles.

"We got very good pitching from Andy Stolt," said Eagles coach Jim Senske. "We got some sacrifice bunts down and some base hits after those. He (Stolt) has really come on for us in the later part of the season."

Stolt has not allowed a run in his last 14 innings, yielding just three hits. He pitched the Section 2-3A title game win over Mankato East.

Stolt, who threw only 57 pitches in getting the win, dominated Ranger (16-9) hitters, allowing only a first-inning bloop single to Chris Young to start the game and a two-out double by Mark Miron in the third as he retired the final 13 hitters he faced after Miron's two-bagger.

"This feels great," said Stolt. "We did not want to leave the state tournament on the first day. They hit the ball and my defense made the plays just like they have all season and in the playoffs."

Both teams could muster only two hits each through three innings before the Eagles plated the only run they needed.

Craig Spelbrink led off the fourth with a walk off Forest Lake starting and losing pitcher Luke Hagman. Jamie Hoffmann's sacrifice bunt pushed Spelbrink to second before Travis Thorson gave the Eagles their first run of the state tournament with a line single to left field.

New Ulm used that same formula in the fifth inning when Rob Geistfeld collected the first of his two hits, singling to center and taking second on Andy Stolt's sacrifice bunt. Travis Boddy coaxed a free pass from Hagman setting the stage for Eric Austvold who took a Hagman pitch to left, scoring pinchrunner Dan Kitzberger for a 2-0 New Ulm lead.

"We wanted to regroup (after the tough loss to Brainerd) and not hang our heads," said the senior catcher. "We wanted to be able to play (Friday). I just felt that (in the first game) I was taking to big of a swing. This game, I just tried to keep my eye on the ball and have a nice, easy swing."

Stolt used a diving catch by Austvold in center to end the bottom of the fifth before adding a third run in the sixth, this time scoring after two were out.

Brandon Rolloff singled to right and swiped second. He took third when the throw from Ranger catcher Sam Polglase bounced into center field. Geistfeld's second single of the game brought in Rolloff for a 3-0 lead.

New Ulm's defense came up big for Stolt with third baseman Travis Thorson making two dazzling plays at third. Shortstop Hoffmann made a diving catch on a bloop fly ball before Stolt got the final out of the game on a come-backer.

"The first game, we did not do what we had been doing all through the playoffs," said Geistfeld. "It really came back and hurt us in that first game. We concentrated more this game. We were all a little nervous that first game. We had a tough time sleeping (Wednesday night.). Now, we can bring home a trophy for New Ulm with a win (today)."

BRAINERD 1, NEW ULM 0

All the things that New Ulm did so well in the sectional tournament, they did not do against Brainerd. And it cost them.

The Eagles failed on two occasions to get down a sacrifice bunt after the lead-off hitter reached and it came back to haunt New Ulm in the 1-0 opening-round loss to the Warriors.

Bob Wellmann (9-2) pitched an exceptional game, allowing only four hits to a good-hitting Brainerd squad while fanning three.

Nic Weiland (8-1) also allowed only four hits, but fanned 13 Eagles in getting the win.

Thorson led New Ulm with two hits while Weiland and Siekas doubled for Brainerd.

"The kid (Weiland) pitched a very good game,"said Senske. "But we had some opportunities to score. We knew that it would be a close game. We had three runners on with no outs and on three different occasions we failed to move him up into scoring position. And on one of those occasions, we would have scored because we got the hit (one batter later).

"But the only run that we gave up was the kid that we didn't want to pitch to. We would have walked him, but Bob (Wellmann) got an 0-2 count on him to close to the plate. We were in a situation to win the ballgame if we had just executed a couple of things."

New Ulm threatened off Weiland in the top of the third when Matt Schmidt and Austvold singled with one out. But a fielder's choice and a ground out ended the Eagle threat.

Brainerd then scored the only run of the game after Wellmann had retired the first two hitters that he faced. Mike Zauhar legged out a bunt single and Joey Tautges walked.It was Wellmann's only free pass of the game.

The sophomore right-hander then worked the count to 1-2 on Weiland before the left-handed hitter drilled a line shot over the head of Austvold in center field for a 1-0 lead.

"Bobby did a nice job for us today," commented Senske. "He made that mistake (to Weiland) that hurt us. However, you have to score a run for a pitcher in order to win."

And the Eagles appeared they would do that in the fifth and again in the sixth.

In the fifth, Geistfeld walked to start the inning. Stolt then struckout on a bunt attempt with two strikes and Schmidt followed by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

And in the sixth, Austvold led off with a free pass. But Spelbrink was called out when his attempted sacrifice bunt attempt wiht two strikes went foul. After Hoffmann fanned, Thorson singled him to third.

However,Austvold was thrown out at home on a delayed double-steal attempt.

That was the Eagles final threat as Weiland retired the Eagles in order in the seventh.

"When you lose a game 1-0, that means that somebody else is doing something well also," said Senske.

NEW ULM 000 000 0--0 4 2

BRAINERD 001 000 x--1 4 0

WP:Weiland. LP:Wellmann

NEW ULM 000 111 0--3 8 0

FOREST LAKE 000 000 0--0 2 1

WP:Stolt. LP:Hagman.