Kaiserhoff tops Green Isle, 8-2

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- In big games,you need the entire team to come through.

Wednesday night, New Ulm Kaiserhoff did and came away with an 8-2 win over Green Isle in nonleague baseball.

The win assures New Ulm of the top seed in the upcoming Section 4B playoffs where they will meet Victoria in the first round.

Left-hander Chris Ruper came up big for New Ulm. He went eight innings and struck out nine to lead the Kaiserhoff (16-5, 4-0 Section 4B).

Matt Breyer was the starting and losing pitcher for the Irish, giving up three runs in three innings of work.

Brad Keenan led a 15-hit Kaiserhoff attack with three hits including a long lead-off home run in the seventh inning. Ryan Ellwein, Brady Ranweiler, Landon Rathmann and Josh Hinson each had two hits. In all, every Kaiserhoff starter had at least one hit.

Mike Herd led Green Isle with three hits with Matt Breyer belting a solo home run for the Irish.

New Ulm, which will host Plymouth Friday night in a nonleague game, opened with two runs in the bottom of the first off Breyer. Keenan's one-out single and Tom Steinbach's double put runners on second and third with one out. A Brady Ranweiler single and a two-out Hinson base hit lifted New Ulm ahead 2-0.

The Irish cut the lead in half in the third when Breyer took a 1-0 Rupert offering over the fence in left. But New Ulm regained a two-run lead in the bottom half of the inning.

Rathmann's one-out double and Cory Ranweiler'sdouble moved Kaiserhoff ahead 3-1.

Green Isle pulled to within one run again in the fourth when Tim Gieseke scored on a Ryan Sauter infield single.

Green Isle reliever Sauter set down the first six Kaiserhoff hitters that he faced before issuing a lead-off walk to Hinson in the sixth and New Ulm capitalized.

Hinson later scored from third on a Travis Fleck single to right for a 4-2 New Ulm lead.

Keenan's homer to left in the seventh increased the lead to 5-2 before New Ulm pushed across three insurance runs in the eighth..

Ryan Ellwein singled with one out and stole second. Tom Steinbach walked before Brady Ranweiler doubled home both Ellwein and pinchrunner Jared Visker. That brought in Nick Schatz who promptly allowed an RBI single by Landon Rathmann for a 8-2 lead.

GREEN ISLE 001 100 000--2 10 1

NU KAISERHOFF 201 001 13x--8 15 0

W--Rupert. L--Breyer. 2B--New Ulm, Steinbach, Rathmann, C.Ranweiler, B.Ranweiler. HR--Green Isle, Breyer; New Ulm, Keenan.