Gold jump out early against Sleepy Eye, win 9-1

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- New Ulm Legion Gold scored six runs in the first inning and added three more in the seventh enroute to a 9-1 win over Sleepy Eye Wednesday night in South Central Legion play.

Tyson Anderson picked up the win for New Ulm Gold (25-1) going 4 1/3 innings and allowing one run on three hits. He struck out two. Chris Cariveau tossed 2 2/3 inning of one-hit ball while Jamie Hoffmann finished the seventh.

Josh Hadley took the loss for Sleepy Eye (13-8) going the distance and striking out 10. He permitted eight hits and walked four.

Kyle Marti had two of Gold's' hits with Kyle Helget driving in two runs.Helget, Blake Thorson and Eric Austvold all doubled for Gold which will host Burnsville Saturday at 5 p.m. in a doubleheader.

Josh Hadley had two of Post 7's hits including a solo home run in the first inning.

Sleepy Eye will play New Ulm Blue today at 5:30 at Mueller Park.

"We kind of bookended our scoring tonight,"said Gold coach Dave Kunz. "We would have liked to have seen a little more scoring in the other innings. But their pitcher did a nice job -- he settled down after that first inning."

"Josh pitched a strong game for us -- it is unfortunate that New Ulm came out and hit the ball as well as they did in the first inning," said Sleepy Eye coach Bruce Belseth."That just really changed the complexion of the whole game. He is a competitor and has done well for us all year. I am sure that that last inning could have been different."

New Ulm would send 10 hitters to the plate in that first inning. Keith McClellan walked, swiped second and scored on Jamie Hoffmann's one-out single on an 0-2 Hadley offering.

Hoffmann also stole second and came home on a two-base throwing error by Post 7 thirdbaseman Jake Deibele on an Eric Austvold groundball.Dusty Fleck quickly made it a 3-0 game, singling in Austvold. A Kyle Marti single and a two-run double off of the rightfield fence by Kyle Helget upped the New Ulm lead to 5-0. Blake Thorson's double brought in Helget.

Other than that, New Ulm's bats were held in check by Hadley who allowed only two more hits - a two-out Austvold double in the second and a leadoff single by Kyle Marti in the third - in the next five innings.

Sleepy Eye got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Josh Hadley muscled a 2-2 Anderson pitch over the fence in rightfield.

Post 7 would put together a threat in the second inning when Anderson walked Bryce Belseth to start the inning and a Deibele double moved him to third. After Anderson retired Randy Braun on strikes, Chris Reinarts' grounded a ball to thirdbaseman Kyle Helget whose throw to first retired Reinarts. Belseth tried to score on the play but was retired on a throw from firstbaseman Jace Marti to catcher Blake Thorson to end the inning.

It was one of three double plays turned by New Ulm in the game -- two of which were inning-enders.

"Where we slacked off hitting-wise, we made up for with our defense," Kunz said. "And Tyson did a nice job. He struggled a little in getting ahead of hitters -- but he got the job done and we had (double plays). He needs to throw the ball and keep it down."

"We did not get a key hit when we needed it," Belseth said. "We also need to have more hits than we did.. We did not get a clutch hit in those early innings -- if we could have gotten a clutch hit just to change the complexion of the game -- but we didn't get it and they made the plays defensively."

New Ulm would push three runs across in the seventh when Hoffmann walked with one out and Austvold was safe on an error. Brandon Rolloff's single over second scored Hoffmann with a fielder's choice adding another run.Three wild pitches by Hadley who tired in the seventh brought in Gold's third run of the inning.

NEW ULM GOLD 600-000-3=9-8-1

SLEEPY EYE 100-000-0=1-4-3

WP:Anderson. LP: Hadley. 2B: Helget (NU), Thorson (NU), Austvold (NU), Deibele (SE). HR: Hadley (SE).