Blue rally dooms Fairmont

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- When the Elias Baseball Annual was still in publication, one of the items that it stated was that in 52 percent of all games, the team that wins will score more runs in one inning than the losing team does in a game.

Touche for the now-defunct Elias Baseball Annual.

New Ulm Legion Blue scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to erase a 4-0 Fairmont lead and went on to top Fairmont 8-5 in South Central Legion play Friday night at Johnson Park.

Joey Penkert was credited with the win, going six innings and being charged with five runs.

The right-hander fanned four, walked four and hit one batter in his stint. Jacob Mertz relieved Penkert and allowed only one baserunner.

Derek Goerndt was tagged with the mound loss for Fairmont allowing six runs in 3 2-3 innings. Mike Haycraft was touched for the final two Blue runs.

Dusty Fleck and Kyle Helget each had two hits with Fleck driving in two runs.

Goerndt led Fairmont with two hits and three RBI.

"We didn't play a very good game tonight," said Blue coach Paul Buboltz. "We had that one big inning that got us back into the game. Overall, we came out flat in the first three innings. We were grounding out on 2-0 pitches. We needed to start taking more pitches because (Goerndt) could not find the strike zone."

Penkert, who had not pitched in almost two weeks, struggled early, falling behind in counts on the first eight hitters that he faced in the first inning.

That resulted in three runs for Fairmont as Darren Scheppman led off with a walk and went to second on a Dustin Zellmer ground out. A single by Mike Haycraft moved Scheppman to third and a Chris Anderson bloop single to left plated him for a 1-0 lead.

A fielder's choice and a walk to Aaron DeBerg loaded the bases before Derek Goerndt helped his own cause by rapping a 2-1 offering by Penkert into right field for score two more Fairmont runs and a surprising 3-0 lead.

"He (Penkert) hasn't pitched since the Blue Earth game, that is because of a lack of games for us," commented Buboltz. "But he got sharper as the game went on (allowing only two hits and two runs in the next five innings while getting all four of his strike outs) before he ran out of gas."

Fairmont, which was seeded ninth in the upcoming Second District Tournament, pushed another run across in the third inning to stake the left-handed Goerndt to a 4-0 lead. Mike Berhow laced a one-out single to right field and went to second on a DeBerg ground out. Goerndt again came through with an RBI base hit to center.

But Blue took a lead that they would never lose in the fourth.

Jacob Mertz drew a one-out walk and went to third on a Kyle Helget single to center. Tyler Janni coaxed a walk to load the bases before a passed ball scored Mertz.

Goerndt issued another free pass, this one to Isaac Forstner, to reload the bases.

Penkert then bounced a potential double-play ball to second baseman Tyler Paskey, who fielded the ball cleanly. But his throw to shortstop Mike Haycraft sailed on the outfield side of Haycraft, allowing both Helget and Janni to score to slice the lead to 4-3 and put Forstner on third.

From there, Jeff Dolan laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt that scored Forstner to tie the contest at 4.

Blue then used back-to-back triples by Dusty Fleck and Brandon Rolloff to take a 6-4 lead.

"It was nice to see us come back like that," said Buboltz. "But I would rather see us (score) right away in the first and second innings -- come out sharp."

A walk and a hit batsman to start the sixth inning ended Penkert's night. Mike Wollschlager's sacrifice bunt off Mertz moved runners to second and third with Paskey's ground out plating DeBerg for Fairmont's final run.

New Ulm added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Pinch-hitter Mitch Walters lined a double to left. Dusty Fleck's base hit scored Jeff Dolan.

Brandon Rolloff was hit by a pitch and Mertz walked with two outs. Helget's base hit to left gave New Ulm an 8-5 lead.

"I don't know if us coming out flat was a case of the seedings (Wednesday night, Blue was seeded second behind New Ulm Gold) or what, but I wanted us to take it to them a little more than they did," said Buboltz. "We could have played a better game but a win is a win."

FAIRMONT 301 001 0--5 5 1

NEW ULM BLUE 000 602 x--8 7 0