Pitching, key hits send

Legion Blue past Plover

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- A good chef will not change his recipe for success.

Friday afternoon, New Ulm Blue mixed in good pitching with some key hitting, along with the inability of Plover, Wis., to get runners in from scoring position, to come away with a 7-4 win.

Jacob Mertz got the mound win for New Ulm Blue, now 2-0 in the Upper Midwest Classic. He went six innings and gave up only one run and struck out one.

He was relieved by Chris Cariveau, who allowed the final three Plover runs, which were unearned thanks to two New Ulm seventh-inning errors.

Matt Mehne took the loss for Plover, permitting seven runs on nine hits.

Brandon Rolloff and Travis Boddy each had two hits with Joey Penkert driving in two runs for Blue.

Adam Pezewski led Plover with three hits and drove in two runs. Kyle Bohm and Adam Evanoff both had two hits as Plover outhit New Ulm 10-9.

"Jacob Mertz did a nice job for us tonight," said coach Paul Buboltz. "He got runners on base, but he worked out of a lot of tough situations. But he moved the ball around, changed speeds -- that is the key to pitching."

Plover's inability to take advantage of Mertz cost them as they left 12 men on base, eight in scoring position.

While the Blacksox had problems getting runners in, that was not a problem for Blue as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

Corey Schnobrich walked before Tyler Janni laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by Mehne on the mound. The right-hander tried to force out Schnobrich at second, but his throw was late, putting runners on first and second with no outs. After Mehne fanned Dusty Fleck and Rolloff for the first two outs, he walked the next three hitters -- Boddy, Mertz and Kyle Helget -- to give New Ulm a 2-0 lead.

Joey Penkert then doubled that score with a two-run single to center that plated Boddy and Mertz.

Schnobrich's infield single in the second resulted in a 5-0 New Ulm lead.He stole second and it appeared that he would remain there as Mehne set down the next two hitters. But Rolloff's grounder to third was thrown away for an error and Boddy made it hurt with an RBI single to center.

Plover threatened in the bottom of the second when Adam Pezewski rapped a one-out double. But Mertz retired the next two hitters to end the threat.

In the third inning, the Blacksox placed runners on second and third with one out but failed to score.

In the fourth inning, two one-out singles only resulted in frustration for Plover as Blacksox again failed to score.

But in the fifth, Plover broke through on Mertz. Evanoff walked and scored on Craig Miller's two-out double.

New Ulm countered that with a two-out run in the sixth. Rolloff singled followed by a Boddy single to left that scooted by left fielder Joel Hojnacki allowing Rolloff to score.

The Blacksox put up a crooked number on the board in the seventh as Evanoff and Matt Borden each reached on errors. Cariveau, who took over for Mertz at the start of the inning, plunked Miller to load the bases. A fielder's choice scored one run before Pezewski doubled in the final two runs for Plover.

NEW ULM BLUE 411 001 0--7 9 3

PLOVER 000 010 3--4 10 3

WP: Mertz. LP: Mehne.