Springfield Falls in Opening Round of Tournament
6/6/09
The Tigers traveled to St. Stephen to take on Isanti in the opening round of the 2009 Omann Insurance Invitational Tournament on a cold and moist Saturday morning. The Redbirds jumped out to a 7-0 lead and would not look back as they beat Springfield 12-5.
Matt Tews took the ball for the Tigers. He kept Isanti off the scoreboard until the top of the third, when the Redbirds' bats caught fire. They put together six hits, including two two-run home runs, to plate six runs in the inning. Isanti started the fourth with a base hit. The runner stole second and was moved around on two ground outs to increase the Redbirds' lead to seven.
The Tigers' offense came alive in the bottom of the fourth. Matt Baier and Marc Salazar started things with back-to-back singles. Baier moved to third when Chris Sturm grounded into a double-play that erased Salazar. Tews drew a two-out walk and Jordan Milbrath came through with an RBI single, scoring Baier. Brent Weber and Marty Brandl reached on back-to-back Redbird errors, adding two runs to the Tiger total, getting Springfield within four at 7-3.
Tews' day on the mound was over after he gave up two hits to start the top of the fifth. Milbrath came on in relief. He induced a double-play and struck out a batter the strand the runners and keep the Redbird lead at four. The Redbirds' offense wouldn't be held down for long as they added three runs to their lead in the sixth and two more in the seventh off of Milbrath.
Springfield started with back-to-back walks from Jason Nachreiner and Jake Miesen in their final at-bat. Baier and Chris Sturm came through with RBI base hits to bring them around to score and make the final 12-5 in the seven inning game.
Matt Tews was tagged with the loss, allowing eleven hits in four innings of work to a very good hitting Isanti team. Matt Baier led the Springfield offense with two hits. Brandon Wilhelmi, Marc Salazar, Chris Sturm, Tews, and Jordan Milbrath each added a hit to the total. The loss put the Tigers in the losers' bracket of the tournament and set-up a match-up with St. Martin scheduled to start at 5:00pm.
Linescore
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | LOB | |
| Isanti | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 17 | 2 | 6 |
| Springfield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 6 |
Springfield Box
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | |
| Wilhelmi, C | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Baier, SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Salazar, 1B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| C. Sturm, CF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Tews, P/2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Milbrath, LF/P | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Weber, RF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Brandl, DH | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nachreiner, 2B/LF | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Miesen, 3B | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 28 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 6 | |
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |
| Tews (L, 1-1) | 4 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Milbrath | 3 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
Pictures
