Marshall downs Kaiserhoff 11-9

From The Independent of Marshall

MARSHALL -- The A's came back from a 5-0 deficit to defeat New Ulm 11-9 Sunday night. the win sends Marshall state and -- well, sends the Kaiserhoff back to New Ulm.

"When you grow up in New Ulm, you live baseball," said New Ulm manager Brady Ranweiler. "You always believe anything is possible. Tonight, it was Marshall that proved that to be true. We were up and they stormed back to beat us."

In the first inning, New Ulm had six consecutive hits, including a double from Tom Steinbach that drove home three runs. The Kaiserhoff easily had complete control of the ball game.

But in true Marshall fashion, the A's slowly chipped away at New Ulm's lead, scoring two runs in the third and another run in the fourth. But New Ulm wasn't giving them anything easy -- the Kaiserhoff scored a run in both the fourth and fifth innings.

In th sixth inning, it seemed like New Ulm had sealed the game as Ryan Ellwein led off with a single home run followed by a an out and then another solo homer from Landon Rathman to put the lead at 9-3.

But whatever seemed to be was not real.

"I was a little bit worried," said Marshall manager Trent Sukalski. "But I never had a doubt that we would be able to come back."

The game suddenly took a 180 degree turn. Marshall had only four hits in the sixth, but the A's took advantage of four walks, an error and a hit pitch, they scored seven runs -- and took the lead for the first time of the evening at 10-9.

With 30 combined hits -- 16 from New Ulm and 14 from Marshall -- one would think the game was a defensive nightmare, but it just wasn't so. The A's were possibly as strong as they have been all year. Matt Tiggas made a few crucial stops, including two consecutive plays to close out the second inning. Marshall's center fielder David Tapper made several great grabs, most notably when he robbed Cory Ranweiler of a home run as Tapper caught the fly above the back fence. Cory Ranweiler got even, though, when he dove after a Rokke foul and caught it.

"Tonight just says so much about the guys," Sukalski said. "They don't give up and always stay in there."

Marshall Starter Barry Wohler walked only two batters -- the only two walks from Marshall all night.

Both relievers, Robert Weaver and Bryan Francis, threw well, striking out three combined batters (two from Weaver). "Pitching was key," Sukalski said. "We really didn't walk anybody so New Ulm had to earn its runs. We forced them to earn the win.

"They definitely had us on the ropes, but they didn't deliver the end punch." 2

With the win, Marshall goes on to determine the number one and number two seeds from the section as it faces Waseca in a best-of-three series beginning Wednesday at Legion Field beginning at 8 p.m.