Brewers top Sleepy Eye 4-3

By HANS BIEBL

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM-- A gritty Jeremy Weiland mound performance and a sliding Troy Kamm catch in the top of the ninth inning preserved a 4-3 New Ulm Brewers win over the Sleepy Eye Indians Sunday night at Johnson Park in the Region 2C Championship.

Weiland finished his complete game with three runs on six hits. He struck out ten and walked three.

Trailing 3-2 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Brewers (22-4), the defending Region 2C champions, had managed to keep the game close enough to be in a position to win and take advantage of Sleepy Eye mistakes.

New Ulm's Todd Hoffmann and Phil Clennon began the game-winning rally, in which New Ulm did not get a hit, with walks from Sleepy Eye (19-9) reliever Jim Eckstein.

Kamm followed with a sacrifice bunt that moved Hoffmann to third and Clennon to second.

During the next at bat, Eckstein unleashed a wild pitch that scored Hoffmann and tied the game at three. Following a Brewer strike out, with Clennon on third, Eckstein bounced a wild pitch on home plate that ended up by the backstop and allowed Clennon to score the winning run.

Eckstein, the third Indian pitcher of the game, took the loss in his one inning of work. He struck out two and walked two while giving up the two runs.

The Indians would not go down without a fight, however. In the top of the ninth, Sleepy Eye's Jon Beckius belted a leadoff double to the right-center gap.

With a runner in scoring position and no outs, Sleepy Eye seemed to be assured of at least one run. But Weiland and the Brewer defense had other ideas. "When I got in trouble, I went to my fastball," said Weiland. "I always say: lose on your best pitch."

After two ground outs had Beckius standing on third, Sleepy Eye's Cody Walter stepped to the plate as the Indians' last hope. Wieland and Walter battled to a 2-2 count before Walter blooped a short fly ball to right center.

With the tieing run moving towards home, Kamm slid and made an amazing, game-saving grab that gave the Brewers the championship.

The Indians took an early 2-0 lead in the second when Brian Sieve sailed a two-run shot over the right field fence.

The Brew Crew tied it up at two in the fourth when Clennon reached on a walk and scored on a Scott O'Brien triple off the wall in right. Evan Jacobs' RBI single to left scored O'Brien.

With the game knotted at two, one Indian run in the eighth to give Sleepy Eye a 3-2 lead set the table for the hitless Brewer rally in the eighth.

By winning the game, New Ulm won the right to the first draft choice, with which they took Searles' Frank Forstner. Sleepy Eye chose Brad Mathiowetz of Stark with their pick.

Both teams advance to the state Class C tournament in Miesville.

SE 020 000 010 -- 3 6 0

NU 000 200 02x -- 4 8 1

WP--Weiland L--Eckstein