Brewers edge Essig, improve to 4-0

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Brewers have made it their motto. Every game is important.

And Wednesday night's game was especially so. The Brewers decisioned the Essig Bluejays 4-2 at Johnson Park in the Region 2C double round-robin playoffs.

With the victory, New Ulm is now 4-0 in the tournament, and a near-certain qualifier for the state amateur tournament.

"For the fourth game in a row, we came out and scored right away," Brewers manager Chris Peters said. "Hopefully, we can continue (Thursday) night. We need one more win to guarantee us a first place."

Essig dropped to 2-2. The Bluejays are two games in back of the Brewers, but with Stark's 10-3 win at Sleepy Eye Wednesday night, the Bluejays still hold the advantage for runner-up seeding.

"We're 2-2, that's not the worst position," Essig manager Doug Radloff said. "(Thursday) night is the key game for us. If we can go beat Sleepy Eye (tonight), we'll be in the driver's seat."

When the Region 2C double round-robin tournament continues today, Stark will be at the Brewers and Sleepy Eye will host Essig. Both games are scheduled for 8 p.m. starts.

The importance of Wednesday night's game was not lost on the Brewers. New Ulm (27-2) again wasted little time in getting its offense going.

The Brewers picked up two of their 10 hits in the bottom of the first inning, scoring a run when lead-off hitter Scott O'Brien scored on a two-out single from designated hitter Todd Hoffmann. Peters gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead in the third, reaching when he was hit by Nick Seidl (6-4) and scoring on the first of three Essig errors in the game.

Two more errors by the Bluejays (18-16) helped the Brewers push their margin to 4-0 in the fifth.

Essig got a pair of unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning. Both runs off Tony Burt (10-0) were unearned; the Brewers committed both of their two errors in the inning.

Burt, without his best fastball, relied more on location. And while the Brewers did commit two errors, the defense also helped Burt.

"I survived, they got a lot of baserunners," Burt said. "They're a good-hitting team, but the defense was solid."

Burt went the first seven innings for the Brewers. He allowed seven hits and walked two while striking out five. Essig stranded seven runners in the game.

"We hit the ball OK," Radloff said. "We could've had a few more hits, some key hits would have been nice, but we ran ourselves out of a couple of runs. One run here or there would've been the difference."

Essig had Larry Haala get caught up in a rundown in the top of the second inning. The Bluejays had runners at first and third with one out when Haala was retired 1-3-4-3. Scott Surprenant then struck out to end the inning.

The Bluejays stranded a pair of baserunners in the top of the third inning, and after scoring twice in the seventh, left runners at first and third when Burt got Jason Schmitz to fly out deep to left field.

That was, however, the end of the evening for Burt. Ryan Walters came on to start the eighth inning and got the last six outs for the save, allowing just one hit.

"It was matter of (Burt's) arm and whether it was feeling good or not," Peters said. "Tony pitched a good game. His arm was feeling a little tired, so I made the choice to bring Walters in."

Said Burt: "My location was fine. It was just the velocity on the fastball. It wasn't there, there was no pop. I've been battling a little bit of a sore arm and haven't thrown for awhile, but it was a good game."

Seidl -- a draftee from Searles -- went the distance for the Bluejays. Only two of the Brewers' runs were earned. He struck out six and walked just two.

"We got a good pitching performance out of Nick," Radloff said.

O'Brien and Todd Hoffmann, who doubled in the Brewers' two-run fifth, each went 2-for-3. Todd Hoffmann had two RBI and he and O'Brien each scored once.

Travis Walden went 2-for-4 for Essig and drove in the Bluejays' second run with a single to center in the two-run seventh. Ryan Weier scored a batter earlier on Lee Haala's RBI groundout.

Terry Helget had the only other multiple-hit game for Essig, going 2-for-3.

"It was very good, tight ballgame," Radloff said. "They played very well."

That's not unexpected when every game is important. And while the Brewers are already virtually assured of a spot in the state tournament, and one win would guarantee them the top seed from Region 2C, they're not coasting.

"We're looking at coming out and trying to win both games we have left," Peters said.

ESSIG 000 000 200--2 8 1

NEW ULM 101 020 00x--4 10 2

Seidl and T.Helget, La.Haala (7). Burt, Walters (8) and Peters. W--Burt 10-0. L--Seidl 6-4. Sv--Walters. 2B--New Ulm, T.Hoffmann. 3B--None. HR--None. T--1:47.