Sleepy Eye Post 7 holds off Gold

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Sleepy Eye Post 7 scored two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings and then survived a three run New Ulm Gold rally in the top of the sixth inning to come away with a 4-3 win over Gold Tuesday night in South Central Legion Baseball.

Brett Braulick got the pitching win for Post 7 which evened their season mark at 1-1. The right-hander went 5 2/3 innings and scattered six hits while striking out five and gave up all three New Ulm runs. Brad Hillesheim tossed 1 1/3 innings of one-hit ball.

Tony Mielke took the loss for New Ulm Gold (3-1) going four innings and yielding four runs on five hits. He struck out two.

Andy Cook went 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Joey Wahl, Tyler Jensen and Brett Braulick had RBI for Post 7.

Bryan Kamm tripled for New Ulm while Josh Thorson added a double.

"It was a good ballgame," New Ulm Gold coach Dave Kunz said. "They had a couple of two-run innings and we had a three-run inning. I think that both teams kind of helped each other with errors, walks and things like that. But I thought that overall, both teams played fairly well."

"It got kind of nerve-racking at the end but Brad Hillesheim came in and did a good job of relief pitching," Post 7 coach Jeff Cook said. "I think that Brett Braulick just tired out a little at the end. He did not pitch college baseball -- he has been pitching for Stark in amateur baseball."

Gold, which will travel to Worthington tonight for a nine-inning contest, and Sleepy Eye, both saw goose-eggs on the scoreboard for the first three innings after both teams had first-inning threats go astray. Landon Rewitzer would single with one out but would be out trying to stretch it into a double. That would hurt as Bryan Kamm followed with a two-out triple to center before Braulick retired Josh Sabatino on a comebacker.

Sleepy Eye threatened in the bottom of the inning when Chris Reinarts walked with one out and Andy Cook doubled. But Mielke set down the next two hitters to end the threat.

Gold, which would strand 11 runners on base in the game, lost a runner at third on a base-running boo-boo in the second before both teams' defenses turned inning-ending double plays in the third.

Post 7 scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning on singles by Cook and Matt Mathiowetz to start the inning with Cook taking third on Mathiowetz' base hit. Joey Wahl then laced a groundball to third baseman Landon Rewitzer, who fielded the ball cleanly but his throw was in the dirt and got by first baseman Adam Nilson, allowing Cook to scamper home. Braulick then laced a single to right for a 2-0 lead.

A walk to Chris Reinarts, a single by Cook and a walk to Mathiowetz loaded the bases for Post 7 in the fifth with no outs. J.J. Germscheid replaced Mielke at that point. A sacrifice fly by Wahl scored Reinarts for a 3-0 lead and a Tyler Jensen single to left upped the Sleepy Eye lead to 4-0.

"Tony started getting tired in that (fifth ) inning," Kunz said. "I probably should have taken him out earlier. But we want to stretch our pitcher out -- it is still early in the season. A lot of these guys are just getting back to pitching. They have not pitched for a while."

Gold got to Braulick in the top of the sixth on a Josh Sabatino lead-off single and a double to center by Josh Thorson. After a groundout, Zach Barrett delivered a run-scoring single to cut the lead ot 4-1. A walk to Scott Knisley loaded the bases before Braulick issued his second straight walk to Brad Kraus to force in the second run of the inning. Joey Geistfeld then collected the third straight free pass to slice the lead to 4-3 and end Braulick's night.

Brad Hillesheim came in and got the final out of the inning.

It was an inning in which Gold left the bases loaded as they stranded runners on base in each inning, including the tying run on second in the top of the seventh.

"We did not do a good enough job when we had runners on base -- there were a couple of key moments where we could have gotten a key hit," Kunz said. "We did that early in the game. But we are young and we are working on things."

NEW ULM GOLD 000 003 0 -- 3 7 2

SLEEPY EYE 000 220 X -- 4 8 2

WP: Braulick. LP : Mielke. 2B: Cook (SE), Thorson (NU). 3B: Kamm (NU).