Gold pummels Blue Earth

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- When your team's hitters have more strike outs than hits, it is hard to win

Toss in averaging an error an inning by that same team's defense and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the outcome.

New Ulm Gold's Craig Spelbrink limited Blue Earth to just four hits while striking out five, and Blue Earth committed seven errors as Post 132 ran its season record to 17-3 win an 8-0 blanking of Blue Earth Tuesday night in a South Central Legion game.

Spelbrink walked only two batters in scattering those four hits while allowing only one Blue Earth runner to reach as far as third base in the game.

Lee Hodges took the loss for Blue Earth. He struck out four New Ulm hitters while allowing nine Gold hits with four of them going for doubles.

Brandon Reinarts led New Ulm with two doubles with Eric Austvold and John Enter both having two-hit games. Dusty Wilfahrt and Enter each also doubled with Enter driving in four runs.

"We took advantage of their mistakes and that is what you have to do," said Gold coach Dave Kunz. "We also hit the ball well. In the inning where we did score five runs (the fifth inning) it all started by hitting the ball hard."

Hitting the ball hard, or hitting it anywhere, keyed the win for New Ulm with the Blue Earth errors.

Five of New Ulm's eight runs were unearned.

Gold plated two of those unearned runs in the first inning when Austvold reached on an error by third baseman Reid Northwig. He promptly stole second and scored on the first of two Reinarts' doubles in the game for a 1-0 lead.

After Hodges set down Joey Schugel and Jamie Hoffmann on strikes, Enter sent Reinarts home with a base hit to center for a 2-0 lead.

While defense was Blue Earth's demise in the game, New Ulm's defense helped Spelbrink keep his shutout going early. In the second inning, Blue Earth's Mike Lewis and Jay Frederickson both singled with one out.

Lee Hodges followed with a ground ball destined for left field. But Schugel, who was fanned by Hodges in the first inning, got his revenge on Hodges when he went deep in the hole and threw out Hodges at first for the second out. It also kept Lewis from scoring, and on the next pitch, designated hitter Andy Hartman grounded out to end the inning.

Gold, which will host Fairmont at 8 p.m. Thursday at Mueller Park, added another run thanks to a Blue Earth boot.

Austvold legged out an infield single to lead off the inning and went to third on two ground outs. Hoffmann followed with a ground ball to third that was fielded cleanly. But the throw from Northwig to first baseman Jay Frederickson pulled him off the base to allow Hoffmann to reach base and Austvold to score.

Spelbrink, who set down 12 straight Blue Earth hitters in the game, got a five-run boost in the bottom of the fifth inning.

"He (Spelbrink) was on tonight," commented Kunz. "He was the right pitcher against (Blue Earth). He had a very good mix of pitches, threw a lot of off-speed pitches. That is what he does and he does it well."

New Ulm pushed five runs across in that fifth inning, keyed by Reinarts' second double of the game to start the inning as Gold sent 10 batters to the plate.

An error, a walk and a bases-clearing double by Enter made it 6-0. A Travis Thorson single coupled with another error upped the lead to 7-0.

The third boot of the inning and a run-scoring double play cushioned the lead at 8-0

"We are getting contributions from everyone on the team," said Kunz as all nine starters reached base in the game. "Up and down the lineup. Sometimes it is the bottom (of the lineup) that gets the hits and other times it is the top (of the lineup.)"

BLUE EARTH 000 000 0--0 4 7

NEW ULM GOLD 201 050 x--8 9 0

WP: Spelbrink. LP: Hodges.