Legion Gold crushes De LaSalle, BemidjiNew Ulm outscores opponents 23-2

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

ROCHESTER -- The New Ulm Gold Legion baseball team had no problem scoring runs as it improved its record to 30-5 with a pair of wins at the American Legion State Tournament at the Rochester Baseball Complex Thursday.

Gold outscored its two opponents 23-2 and will play Bloomington Blue at 4 p.m. today at Hudson Park.

In the first game, Gold unleashed an aggressive hitting attack and defeated De LaSalle 14-1. The game ended after the seventh inning due to the 10-run rule.

Tyson Anderson was the winning pitcher. He went five innings and struck out three, allowing seven hits. Nick Breu pitched the final two innings for Gold, striking out four. He allowed only one hit.

"We fielded well, we pitched well and we hit the ball well," Gold coach Dave Kunz said. "That's the key ingredients. We didn't get down. We gave up a run early, but we came back and answered with three."

Gold finished the game with 15 hits. Eric Austvold led the way, going 2-for-3 with a home run, a triple and four runs scored. He also drove in four. Jamie Hoffmann also had a triple and a home run. He scored three runs and drove in three.

"We had production from all around, and we had some guys have some good at-bats," Kunz said. "They maybe didn't get a hit, but they still knocked a run in."

De LaSalle scored the first and their last run of the game on a sacrifice fly to right. New Ulm scored three in the bottom of the first, highlighted by back-to-back triples by Austvold and Hoffmann.

"Right off the bat, we're down, but we get those two triples back-to-back, and that put us on top," Kunz said.

Gold scored three more in the second thanks to Austvold's three-run home run to right that made it 6-1.

"In the first couple of at-bats, he threw me a bunch of fastballs," Austvold said. "That was the first curveball I saw."

Gold scored five more in the fourth to go up 11-1. Peter Meier had a single which scored two, and Marti also had an RBI in the inning.

Gold added three more in the fifth after Jeff Dolan's grounder to second scored Keith McClellan, who reached with a double. Hoffmann then crushed a Jacob Virden offering over the fence in left to make it 14-1. McClellan scored three runs and had two hits. Dolan had two hits and scored twice and Meier had three hits. Blake Thorson had a double and scored twice.

In the second game, Gold took advantage of some sloppy play by Bemidji and won 9-1. Bemidji committed seven errors in the contest.

Dusty Wilfahrt was the winning pitcher. He went the distance, striking out six and allowing six hits. He walked four and threw 120 pitches.

"He's very good at setting up batters," Austvold said. "He gets to the full count a lot and sets them up for the strikeout."

"It was actually one of Dusty's better games," Kunz said. "[He] just had the right mix. He was getting it near enough to the zone where he was forcing them to hit his strike."

Gold scored two runs in the top of the first after McClellan and Austvold both scored. New Ulm then scored two more in the top of the third to give Wilfahrt some cushion. McClellan scored his second of three runs in the contest and Dolan scored on error to make it 4-0.

In the fifth inning, McClellan, Dolan and Austvold all scored to make it 7-0. Bemidji, which beat Tri City Red 19-3 in its first game, finally scored in the bottom of the sixth after Jason Fairchild scored on Darren Caspers' double to right-center to make it 7-1.

In the ninth, Marti singled in Austvold, and Meier followed with an RBI single that scored Hoffmann to make it 9-1. Austvold scored three runs in the second game and Dolan scored twice. Marti went 3-for-5 with a triple and two RBIs. Austvold, McClellan and Dolan had two hits each.