Wieland Brewers stifle St. James

Brewer pitchers notches 20 Ks in two-hit shutout

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- For most of the 2001 Tomahawk East League season, New Ulm Brewer pitcher Jeremy Wieland was a bystander due to an injury to his pitching arm.

On July 27, Wieland pitched six innings, striking out seven and allowing four hits in a 14-4 win.

Thursday night, he completed his comeback.

The righthander struck out a career-high 20 hitters and permitted only two hits as the Brewers ran by St. James 7-0 in a Section 2C seeding game.

Wieland did not allow a hit until the A's got both of their hits --singles -- with one out in the sixth inning.

Matt Sizer took the loss for St. James, allowing three runs in five innings of work.

Scott Schaefer and Scott O'Brien each had two hits, with O'Brien and designated hitter Tony Burt both driving in three runs.

But the story of the game was Wieland, who seems fully recovered from his arm problems.

"We never really figured out completely what was wrong with my arm," said Wieland who struck out the side in both the seventh and eighth innings. "They think it was just inflammation so I went in and got a cortisone shot (on Monday) and the arm feels a lot better now. That is helping and the arm feels good now."

Wieland allowed two St. James baserunners in the first inning on one-out walks to Justin Kaus and Kris Nelson before recording the first of his 20 whiffs on the night and ending the inning on a groundout.

After that, he set down the next nine hitters before walking Doug Burman.

Meanwhile, the Brewers scored in the bottom of the first inning when Corey Schaefer walked, one of nine walks in the game by Sizer and Doug Burman. Brad Weber coaxed a free pass and a Scott Schaefer sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position.

Chris Peters' sacrifice fly plated Schaefer for a 1-0 lead.

New Ulm tacked on two more runs in the third inning. Scott Schaefer led off with a single and Peters walked. A Todd Hoffmann infield single loaded the bases and a two-out base hit by Scott O'Brien increased the lead to 3-0.

In the sixth inning, St. James put together their only real threat of the game. After Wieland fanned Doug Ekstrom to start the inning, Justin Kaus laced an 0-1 Wieland pitch to center for the first hit of the game. Kris Nelson followed with a single to right field. When Kaus tried to take third on the hit, he was gunned down by rightfielder Evan Jacobs who threw a strike to Troy Kamm who was waiting for a sliding Kaus. Wieland then struck out Mark Beltz for the third time (he would strike out Beltz again in the ninth for the fourth time) to end the threat.

"My fastball was working pretty well tonight," said Wieland. "(But) everything seemed to be working well tonight. When I threw my change-up, I was able to pick my spots with that."

The Brewers scored two more runs in the sixth after two were out off reliever Doug Burman.

Brad Weber singled and Scott Schaefer walked. After Peters and Hoffmann were retired, Tony Burt drove a line single to left that scored both runners for a 5-0 lead.

In the eighth inning, Peters was hit by a Burman pitch and Hoffmann reached on a two base throwing error. But again, New Ulm would score runs after two were out when Scott O'Brien singled to right for a 7-0 lead.

Wieland, who had 13 of the strikeouts swinging, ended the game by fanning the final three outs of the game, the last coming on a called third strike to Burman.

"This is playoff time and it is time to get going now," said Wieland. 'And I think that we (Brewers) are picking it up and ready to make a run (at the state tournament)."

Following the game,the Brewers drafted Terry Helget from Essig and Cole Deibele of Stark. St. James picked Brad Mathiowetz of Stark and Frank Forstner of Searles.

It will be a best 3-out-of-5 series with this tentative schedule for Saturday: Leavenworth at New Ulm Brewers at 2 p.m. and St. James at Sleepy Eye at 8 p.m. But the afternoon game may be changed to a night game if the heat is too bad.

ST. JAMES 000-000-000=0-2-3

NU BREWERS 102-002-02X=7-9-1

WP: Wieland. LP: Sizer.