Reinarts homer crushes Mankato

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Opposing teams now have a good reason to pitch around Sleepy Eye catcher Chris Reinarts.

Reinarts hit two home runs over the weekend in a tournament at Raymond, then broke the game open with Mankato Monday with a 3-run homer to left in the fourth inning, spotting Sleepy Eye a 9-3 lead.

Reinarts then provided an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to give his team a 12-3 lead as Sleepy Eye won 13-3 in five innings.

"[I'm] getting the at-bats and seeing the ball good," Reinarts said. "I'm getting the pitches I want to hit ... putting a good swing into it. [I'm] Swinging to get base hits, [but I'm] hitting the ball hard and they're going over the fence."

It was the second time this season that Sleepy Eye (8-7) has defeated Mankato (11-9), and it was an important game for both teams with the sub-district seedings on the line.

"They came ready to play," Mankato coach Jamie Mulvihill said. "You can't take anything away from them. We knew that they're a good team, and we're obviously going to look forward to them in the districts too. Obviously if we're going to play them again, we gotta come ready to play."

Tyler Jensen also provided some punch at the fifth spot in the order as he hit two doubles and drove in two runs. Jensen also scored two runs.

"We've got a great hitting team, we'll compete with anybody in that aspect," Reinarts said.

Sleepy Eye jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning off Mankato starter Paul Mages. Matt Gangelhoff and Andy Cook singled and Matt Mathiowetz singled to score Gangelhoff. Jensen's double drove in Cook and Mathiowetz, and Jensen scored on a wild pitch for the fourth run of the inning.

"I was a little surprised the way we jumped on them so fast," Jensen said. "I knew we could hit him, so it was a matter of getting the hits when we need them."

Mathiowetz got the win for Sleepy Eye, allowing four hits and striking out three.

"He pitched a great game," Reinarts said. "[He] hit the spots, and let me call the game, and we came out with the 'W' tonight."

Mankato scored two runs in the top of the second when Andy Stori's triple scored Eric Starke and John Montag. Mathiowetz got out of the jam by striking out Jon Dobson and getting Chase Brown to fly out to center.

"It came down to Matt throwing strikes and our defense making some good plays, and we finally started hitting the ball hard," Jensen said.

Mankato's Taylor Blomquist hit a lead-off home run in the third inning, but Mathiowetz settled down and allowed only one more hit the rest of the way.

Sleepy Eye scored four more runs in the fourth, highlighted by Reinarts' home run. Sleepy Eye scored four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to end the game.

B.J. Sprenger knocked in Tyler Jensen from second for the first run of the inning, then Gangelhoff, who scored four runs, drove in Jake Bohnen.

Reinarts singled in Jason Schueler and Travis Braulick reached first with the bases loaded on a throwing error that scored Gangelhoff for the game's final run.

Sleepy Eye is at Fairmont today.