Sioux Falls big inning

dooms Jr. Legion, 11-4

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM-- In every ballgame, there is a turning point that ultimately determines the outcome.

For the New Ulm Junior Legion, it more resembled a U-turn.

Sioux Falls, S.D., West scored eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on only three hits and ran by the Junior Legion 11-4 in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic Thursday night at Johnson Park.

Josh Rohrich was the winning pitcher for Sioux Falls, striking out five and allowing eight hits.

Dusty Farasyn was tagged with the loss for New Ulm.

Justin Rippentrop led Sioux Falls with two hits, both doubles, and both in that fifth inning.

He also drove in two runs.

Nate Carroll, Blake Thorson and Danny Boettger each had two hits with Thorson driving in all four runs. Boettger had two triples.

"I thought that we had real good focus (before the game)," commented coach Al Flor. "But we lost our focus after the first inning and I really don't know why. That is all that I can say. The telling story is the scoreboard."

New Ulm did jump to a 2-0 lead in the first inning off of Rohrich when Nate Carroll singled and took second on a wild pitch. Rohrich then plunked Derik Johnson. Mitch Palmer's sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position for Blake Thorson who delivered a two-run single to right.

New Ulm threatened again in the second inning but had some baserunning mistakes, the first of two costly ones, occurred. Kyle Marti singled to left, but was caught off first by catcher Corey Benson for the first out. Danny Boettger followed with a triple to center. But Boettger was caught napping off of third by Rohrich for the second out. Two hits, no runs, two outs.

"That was just a lack of concentration," said Flor of the pickoffs.

Sioux Falls used that to spark a one-run tally in the top of the third off of Farasyn when Brandon Greiner walked and moved to second on Austin Drusch's sacrifice bunt. He scored on the first of five New Ulm errors in the game.

West scored twice in the bottom of the fourth. Jason Nyhus got the first Sioux Falls hit when he legged out an infield single and went to second on a throwing error. Jared Greenfield doubled him home to tie the game and Greiner's two-out single plated Greenfield for a 3-2 lead.

New Ulm's third base running fax paus came in the fourth when Boettger led off with his second triple of the contest. But he was again snuffed out at third on a Rohrich pick-off move.

That may have been a preview of what was to happen in the bottom of the inning. Rippentrop doubled, ending Farasyn's night. Corey Benson received a one-out walk from Ty Anderson and Nyhus reached on an error to load the bases.

After Rohrich was fanned by Anderson, it went downhill. A walk, a hit-batsman, another walk and a passed ball made it 7-2 before an infield single upped the lead to 8-2.

NU JUNIOR LEGION 200 002 0-- 4 8 5

SIOUX FALLS 001 280 x--11 6 0

WP: Rohrich. LP: Farasyn. 2B: Greenfield 2 (SF). 3B: Boettger 2 (NU).