NU Blue stuns Gold

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

MANKATO -- For the first time in its history, New Ulm Legion Blue has a win over big brother New Ulm Legion Gold.

And it came in the Second District American Legion Baseball Tournament.

New Ulm Blue scored nine unearned runs in the top of the fourth inning after two were out and then plated three more runs after two were retired in the eighth inning and stunned number one seeded Gold 14-8 Saturday at Wolverton Field.

Left-hander Shawn Witte got credit for the win for New Ulm Blue (9-9) going six innings and yielding eight runs.

J.J. Germscheid took the loss in relief for Gold (13-16).

Ryan Turbes and Dan Berg each had three hits for New Ulm Blue with Mikale Gustafson and Brett Fleck each contributing two hits. Turbes had three RBIs, with Gustafson and Curt Thoreson each driving in two runs.

Scott Knisley and Levi Stugelmeyer each had three hits for Gold and Landon Rewitzer had two hits. Knisley had a two-run home run in the sixth, while Rewitzer and Stugelmeyer each had doubles.

New Ulm Blue will now face Sleepy Eye today at 6:30 p.m. at Wolverton Field, and Gold plays an elimination game against against Eagle Lake today at 3 p.m.

"I am feeling great right now," the left-handed Witte said about the win. "I am thinking that potentially we could go all the way now. We did not expect much -- we wanted to come out and play hard. And we came out on top."

"We had no pressure at all on us," Turbes said. His RBI single in the fifth gave Blue an 11-1 lead over Gold. "I think that they came out a little flat and we took advantage of some of their errors -- one big inning, and that killed them."

New Ulm Gold held a precarious 1-0 lead going into the top of the fourth inning when Fleck led off the inning with a single to left and was sacrificed to second by Turbes. An Andy Boyle groundout recorded the second out before Thoreson grounded a ball to shortstop Knisley for the apparent third out. But the ball went under Knisley's glove, scoring Fleck to tie the game at 1-1.

That proved costly as Blue would send 10 more batters to the plate after the error to score nine runs.

Jacob Meyer followed the error with a single and Dan Berg drew a walk off of starter Adam Nilson, who struggled. A wild pitch scored a run before Nilson issued a walk to Jon Koeckeritz and then walked in a run when Jeff Schnobrich got a free pass. A Gustafson single over Nilson scored Berg for a 4-1 lead and ended Nilson's day. Germscheid got Fleck to ground to Knisley at shortstop. But Knisley's throw to Stugelmeyer went off of Stugelmeyer's glove as two more runs scored for a 6-1 lead. A Turbes RBI single and the fourth error by New Ulm Gold -- this one by third baseman Rewitzer -- gave New Ulm Blue a 9-1 lead.

"Pitching and defense -- we did not get either done," a disappointed Gold coach Dave Kunz said. "We did not pitch well -- we had 11 walks -- pitching and defense."

New Ulm Blue added two more runs in the fifth. Berg and Koeckeritz singled to start the inning. After two outs, Fleck and Turbes delivered clutch RBI singles for a fairy tale 11-1 lead for Blue. In two innings, the normally mild Blue bats collected nine of their 12 hits in the game.

"I was surprised [by the hitting]," Geistfeld said. "I was worried about that coming into the game, because we had games where we struggled to even hit the ball hard. Both Ryan and Dan had a good game hitting-wise. Dan [Berg] splits a lot of time and he made the best of his opportunity."

But Gold would came back with four runs in the fifth inning. Knisley's sacrifice fly scored Stugelemeyer, who had singled earlier in the inning. A Tyler Morgan sacrifice fly, and RBI singles by Adam Neubauer and Tony Mielke cut the lead to 11-5.

Gold added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Stugelmeyer doubled and scored on a Rewitzer single before Knisley belted a two-run home run to left to pull Gold to within 11-8.

But Blue again used the ability to score with two outs, bringing in three more runs in the eighth inning to seal the upset win.

"We need to play one more good game [today] and we will pitch Curt Thoreson," Geistfeld said. "It will be a fun game."

NEW ULM BLUE 000 920 030 -- 14 12 2

NEW ULM GOLD 100 043 000 -- 8 13 6