National wins All-Star Game

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- In a game in which hits were at a premium, St. James' Brandon Olson made his pay off.

Olson's one-out triple in the bottom of the fifth inning scored the only two runs of the game as the National Division blanked the American Division 2-0 Tuesday night in the Tomahawk East All-Star game at Johnson Park.

Olson was named the Most Valuable Player of the game.

Jerry Reminger of Redwood Falls was the winning pitcher for the National Division. He was one of six pitchers that held the American Division to only one hit -- that being a one-out single to right in the top of the fifth inning by the New Ulm Brewers' Scott O'Brien.

Jake Jenniges of Lamberton took the loss, giving up two runs in three hits in the only inning that saw any scoring.

And it was a game that the American Division had few scoring threats.

The six pitchers from the National Division - Jim Eckstein of Sleepy Eye, Jesse Tollefson of Springfield, Jerry Reminger of Redwood Falls, Brad Mathiowetz of Stark, Jesse Berg of Springfield and Brian Hertling of Sleepy Eye who got the save- allowed only four baserunners.

Essig's John Giefer drew a lead-off walk in the first of off Eckstein, the Brewers' Brad Weber reached on an error in the fourth, O'Brien's single in the fifth and when New Ulm's Ryan Walters reached on an error.

Otherwise, American hitters were held in check. The six pitchers struck out 13 American hitters.

"I didn't think that we would be held to one hit in the game," said the Brewers Chris Peters who managed the American Division. "But the pitching was good between both teams -- we had one hit and they had four -- we did not have many opportunities. They had one guy that came through with the big hit and they deserved to win."

That big hit would be set up by two smaller hits and a sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning.

Brian Hertling led off the inning by singling off of Jake Jenniges - who followed the Brewers' Jeremy Wieland and Hanska's Dayton Larson -- into a scoreless fifth.

Springfield's Adam Luckhardt laced a base hit to left putting runners on first and second with no outs.

Brian Mathiowetz' sacrifice bunt put both runners in scoring position for Brandon Olson. Olson worked Jannges to a 1-1 count before tripling to deep rightfield to score both Hertling and Luckhardt.

That would be all that the National Division would need.

"I expected this game to be low-scoring," said National manger Bob VanHee of Redwood Falls. "With the wood bats and the type of ballplayers that each division has -- they are all fundamentally sound. You have good hitters but this is the top of baseball -- it is probably as good as you are going to find in the state of Minnesota. (Johnson Park) was also a beautiful place to play it in."

"The players like coming into this game," Peters said. "They like coming to Johnson Park and hopefully it can happen again next season."

AMERICAN 000-000-000=0-1-1

NATIONAL 000-0020-00X-2-4-2

AMERICAN: Jeremy Wieland, Dayton Larson (3), Jake Jenniges (4), Nick Seidl (6), Paul Buboltz (7), Kevin Hulke (8) and Chris Peters, Terry Helget (5).

NATIONAL: Jim Eckstein, Jesse Tollefson (3), Jerry Reminger (5), Brad Mathiowetz (6), ,Jesse Berg (8), Brian Hertling (9) and Lloyd Helget, Adam Luckhardt (5).

3B: Brandon Olson (SJ).