Kaiserhoff falls to Plymouth in 9th

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Blake Malloy's sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning scored B. J. Welsh from third to break a 2-2 tie, and lefthander Dave Tierney set down the Kaiserhoff in order in the ninth as Plymouth snuck by New Ulm 3-2 Thursday night in a non-league game.

Tierney was the winning pitcher for the Rocks in relief of starter Brian Johnson who went the first seven innings. The lefthanded reliever worked out of trouble in the eighth inning in getting the victory.

Al Flor took the loss for New Ulm, also in relief. Flor allowed only two hits in his three innings of work but was hurt by a costly error in that ninth inning, the third error of the game for New Ulm.

Aaron Heitzman started for New Ulm and went six innings permitting two runs on five hits while striking out five Rock hitters.

Jeremy Oligmueller and John Maslow both had two hits for the Class "A" Rocks.

No Kaiserhoff hitter had more than one hit. Al Flor and Aaron Dolan had RBI singles for New Ulm, who will host Dassel-Cokato Saturday night at 7:30 in another non-league contest.

The lefthanded Heitzman and the righthanded Johnson hooked up in an old-fashioned pitcher's battle for the first five innings.

Johnson had Kaiserhoff hitters out of sync for the first 3 2/3 innings as he set down the first 11 New Ulm hitters before Heitzman lined a two-out, 1-2 fastball just over the head of Rock thirdbaseman Mike Benson. Johnson got Brady Ranweiler to ground out for the final out.

Johnson permitted only one more Kaiserhoff player to reach base through those first six innings, that being Ryan Ellwein who coaxed a two-out walk in the sixth inning.

While Heitzman didn't coast through the first five innings, he was up to the challenge of Rock threats in several innings.

In the first inning, Plymouth placed runners on first and second with two outs before Heitzman recorded one of his five strikeouts to end the threat

The southpaw again got out of a jam in the third inning when an error and a double put Rock runners on second and third with two outs before a groundout ended the inning.

The Rocks, who stranded five runners in the first three innings, got to Heitzman in the sixth for two runs on a Malloy double and a walk to Oligmueller. Maslow's base hit loaded the bases before a double play brought in one run.

A Heitzman wild pitch plated the second Rock run of the inning.

The Kaiserhoff finally got to Johnson in the bottom of the seventh when Brady Ranweiler walked and Johnson hit Landon Rathmann. Singles by Flor and Aaron Dolan, both on 1-2 counts, tied the game.

New Ulm mounted a threat in the bottom of the eighth off Tierney on a one-out single by Cory Ranweiler and a two-out single by Brady Ranweiler that moved Cory to third. But Tierney got Rathmann on an infield pop-out to end the threat.

Plymouth scored the game-winning run in the ninth off Flor when Welsh singled with one out and went to second on an error by Dolan at second. A walk loaded the bases before Malloy lofted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Welsh.

PLYMOUTH 000-002-001=3-7-0

KAISERHOFF 000-000-200=2-5-3