Brewers leave door open

NEW ULM -- Too many missed opportunities.

The New Ulm Brewers stranded 15 runners on base Friday night, leaving the door open for Redwood Falls to escape Johnson Park with a 7-3 win in the opening game of a best-of-3 Tomahawk East playoff series.

Curt Koewler got the mound win for the Redbirds despite yielding 10 hits and issuing seven free passes, but worked out of jams with eight strike outs. Teammate Casey Pack threw the final two scoreless innings for the save.

Jeremy Wieland shouldered the mound loss for New Ulm, giving up 12 hits while fanning 14 and walking just one. The Brewer offense left at least one runner on base in every inning.

Things started off well for New Ulm as Dan O'Brien opened the game with a double and eventually scored on a Brad Weber sacrifice fly to center. Wieland, who cruised along by striking out six through the first four innings, finally ran into trouble in the fifth.

With two out, Cory Jensen delivered the Redbirds' second hit of the game and didn't have to stay long as Darrin Reinhart took the first Wieland offering he saw over the fence in left field for a 2-1 Redwood Falls lead. The Redbirds would not trail again.

The Brewers, meanwhile, left two runners on base in the second, third, and fourth innings before knotting the game in the bottom of the fifth. Weber singled to begin the frame, and came all the way in to score on Chris Peters' infield single and a throwing error by Koewler.

The tie wouldn't last long, though, as Eric Brosam and David Darr led off the sixth with consecutive base hits. John Jenniges' ground out moved Darr to second, and Corey Theis' base hit to center plated both runs for a 4-2 Redwood lead.

New Ulm would get one of those runs back in the bottom half of the seventh as Peters once again reached on a dribbling infield hit. Dan Krzmarzick would follow with a double to left, and consecutive walks to Corey Schaefer and Al Wurtzberger forced in the Brewers' third run of the game. The bases would be left loaded as Koewler once again worked his way out of trouble, and two more runners would be stranded in the eighth against Pack.

Redwood would break the game open in the ninth thanks to a few seeing-eye hits that plated three more runs. Reinhart's bloop single to left scored Tony Dahmes for the 5-3 lead, and Brosam's sky-high pop fly was lost in the infield, scoring both Jensen and Reinhart for the final margin.

Brosam was 4-for-5 to lead the Redwood sticks in the win. Teammates Reinhart and Jensen each scored a pair of runs.

O'Brien, Troy Kamm, and Peters each had two hits to lead the Brewers.

The best-of-3 series now shifts to Redwood Falls Sunday, 7:30 p.m., giving the Redbirds a chance at a sweep of the top seed.

REDWD FALLS 000 022 003 -- 7 12 1

BREWERS 100 010 100 -- 3 10 0

WP--Koewler, LP--Wieland; S--Pack. 2B--O'Brien (NU), Krzmarzick (NU). HR--Reinhart (RF).