St. James stops Essig in Tomahawk

East series

9-1 win pits A's against Brewers in division finals

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM - St. James' righthander Duane Olenius held Essig bats to just four hits while his A's teammates slammed out 13 hits against four Bluejay pitchers as St. James ended Essig's season with a 9-1 win.

St. James now advances to play the New Ulm Brewers in a best-of-three series beginning Thursday night at 8 p..m.

Kevin Hulke started and took the loss for Essig, allowing four runs in three innings of work.

Brett Olson led the St. James' attack with three hits. Brandon Olson and Doug Ekstrom each added two hits as all nine starters for St. James had at least one hit.

Mark Beltz belted a three-run home run and drove four runs in the game while Jon Price hammered a solo home run.

St. James would threaten in both the first and second innings off the veteran southpaw Hulke but both times, he worked out of trouble. In the first, the A's put runners on first and third but had a runner caught stealing for the third out. And in the second, they loaded the bases with two outs before Hulke recorded the final out on a fly out.

But in the third inning, St. James would get to Hulke and the Bluejays.

Brett Olson reached on a one-out infield single and Brandon Olson laced a base hit to left.

Mark Beltz followed by sending a 1-0 Hulke offering over the fence in left for a 3-0 lead.

The A's tacked on four more runs in the fourth inning as they ended Hulke's night on the mound.

Dave Gray led off with a double to center as Hulke was replaced by Jeff Juni. He scampered to third on Randy Helget's fly out. Price was hit by a pitch and swiped second. Juni then walked Justin Kaus to load the bases. After a fly out, Juni issued free passes to Brandon Olson and Beltz for 5-0 cushion.

Greg Haubrich became the third Essig pitcher and allowed a two-run single by Doug Ekstrom that ballooned the lead to 7-0.

A walk to Gray to start the fifth produced a single run when Helget doubled him home as the lead swelled to 8-0.

Meanwhile, Olenius had allowed only one hit through five innings - that being a second inning Jeff Juni single.

The Jays mounted their biggest threat of the first eight innings when Lee Haala and Scott Suprenant singled with one out. But a double play ended the inning.

St. James then used their second home run of the game to close out their scoring when Jon Price took a Terry Helget pitch deep over the fence in rightfield.

Essig finally broke through on Olenius in the ninth on an error, a hit batter and a two-out Terry Helget RBI single.

ST. JAMES 003-410-010=9-13-2

ESSIG 000-000-001=1-4-1