Gold hangs on to down Blue in playoff game

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

ST. JAMES -- Charles Dickens wrote a classic book many years ago titled "A Tale of Two Cities."

If he were alive today, he may well have called Saturday's Second District tournament game between New Ulm Gold and New Ulm Blue "A Tale of Two Ballgames."

Top-seeeded Gold raced to a 10-0 lead after three innings only to see fourth-seeded Blue slice that lead to 10-6 after 5 1/2 innings before Gold plated six runs in the bottom of the eighth to down their rivals 18-8 in St. James.

Dusty Farasyn got the win for Gold, going 5 1/3 innings and yielding six runs. Southpaws Tony Mielke and Nick Breu pitched the last 2 2/3 innings with Mielke going 1 2/3 innings with Breu tossing the final inning.

Brett Burgau took the loss for Blue, yielding 12 runs in six innings.

New Ulm Blue will now face Fairmont at noon today in St. James in an elimination game while Gold meets the winner of the Mankato-Sleepy Eye contest at 7 p.m.

Eric Austvold led New Ulm Gold with three hits with Keith McClellan, Jeff Dolan, Jamie Hoffmann and Kyle Marti all having two-hit games. Austvold and Hoffmann both doubled with Marti blasting a two-run home run.

Landon Rewitzer paced Blue with four hits and Derik Johnson added three. Brian Kamm had two hits -- one being a two-run home run.

"I think that we came out a little nervous to start off the game," Blue coach Rob Geistfeld said. "We were playing the best team in New Ulm. We got down (10-0) but slowly chipped away at the lead. We made the plays and hit the ball (Blue had 14 hits in the game compared to 15 for Gold) later in the game. We make a few more plays and it is a close ballgame."

Like Dickens' book, this game would be in chapters instead of the traditional innings.

Chapter One saw Gold score five runs in the first inning off of the lefthanded Burgau. Keith McClellan and Jeff Dolan walked before Eric Austvold singled to left to load the bases. Jamie Hoffmann followed with a two-run single before Tyson Anderson singled in the third run of the inning, Pete Meier walked before a fielder's choice and an error accounted for two more runs.

Gold added a single run in the second when McClellan reached on an error (Blue had four errors in the first three innings) and later scored on the second error of the inning on an Anderson groundball.

It became 10-0 in the third inning when Blake Thorson walked and Dusty Wilfahrt reached on the third error of the game. McClellan's bsae hit scored Thorson with RBI singles by Jeff Dolan Austvold and Kyle Marti bringing in the last three runs of the inning.

With Gold up 10-0, Chapter Two began.

"We let them get back in the game," Gold coach Dave Kunz said as he saw his team outscored 6-0 over the next 2 1/2 innings. "To their credit, they had some big hits and before we scored later in the game that they were hitting the ball better than we were."

Landon Rewitzer, who had four hits in the game, started Chapter Two off with a lead-off single in the fourth inning before Brian Kamm hammered a 1-0 Dusty Farasyn offering over the fence in leftfield to cut the lead to 10-2.

Blue added two more runs in the fifth. Nick Olson walked and went to second on a passed ball. A Jon Koeckeritz groundball moved him to third where he scored on a Rewitzer infield single. A wild pitch and a Kamm double -- his second extra base hit in two at-bats -- saw the lead down to 10-4.

It shrunk to 10-6 in the top of the sixth on Tim Fischer's two-run single which ended Farasyn''s day on the mound and saw momentum on Blue's side.

"Brian and Landon hit the ball well -- Landon hit to all parts of the field and Brian's home run really got us back into the game mentally," Geistfeld said.

But Gold regained a little momentum in the bottom of the sixth when they scored twice on a McClellan single and a Dolan sacrifice fly.

Blue scored runs in the seventh and eighth to pull to within 12-8.

But Chapter Three came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Gold scored six times to end the game with the 10-run rule. A run on an error, doubles by Austvold and Hoffmann and a two-run home run by Kyle Marti ended the game.

Both coaches agreed that this game was good for New Ulm baseball. "This was a great game; we had a lot of fun," Geistfeld said. "I am glad this it was a close game."

Kunz said that Blue "is seeded fourth in the tournament. They have good young ballplayers -- they have done well in their three tournaments this year. They are as tested as we are."

NEW ULM BLUE 000 222 11 8 14 4

NEW ULM GOLD 514 002 06 18 15 0