An Ugly Night in Hanska
7/20/12
Springfield headed to Hanska on Friday night to take on the Lakers. Jake Miesen made his return to the mound after an absence of almost fourteen months due to injury. The Tigers built a 5-2 lead, but everything fell apart in the bottom of the fifth when Hanska batted eleven and scored seven runs on their way to a 12-5 win.
Jacob Menage worked a walk off Hanska starter Corey Schultz to start the ballgame. A pair of wild pitches and a two-out base on balls to Ryan Sturm put runners at the corners for the Tigers. Adam Schmid got Springfield on the board with a solid single, scoring Menage.
Miesen took a bit to shake off some rust in the bottom of the first, issuing walks to the Lakers' first two batters. A base hit from Eric Portner tied the game and a ground out pushed across their second run of the inning.
Schultz helped the Tigers out in the second when he started the inning with a walk and a hit batter. Brent Haseleu dropped down a two-strike bunt which stayed fair to load the bases. A wild pitch allowed Max Salazar to score the tying run. Then a ground out by Menage drove in Ryan Beyer to put Springfield on top, 3-2. Finally, Matt Vogel ripped a single to score Haseleu and put the visitors up by two.
Beyer was hit by a pitch for the second time to start the fourth inning. A sac bunt, along with a two-out double to right-center by Vogel plated Springfield's fifth run of the night. The Lakers were able to get at least one base runner in the second through the fourth innings, but Miesen worked his way out of each frame with the damage remaining at two runs.
With the score 5-2, Hanska went to the bullpen in the top fifth to bring on southpaw Eric Portner. After a one-two-three top of the inning, the Lakers got a triple to start the home half. Miesen got a strikeout, but followed it up with a free pass. Brady Mosenden then mashed a two-run double, but was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a three-bagger.
With two down and the score sitting at 5-4, it looked as through Miesen would be able to get out of the inning with the lead intact. However, the strike zone became very elusive. Suddenly three straight walks and a hit batter made it a tie game and spelled the end of the night for Miesen. Mike Salazar came on with the bases loaded and coaxed a potential inning ending grounder on the first pitch. It wasn't to be as a Springfield miscue kept the inning alive for the Lakers. Derek Wilfahrt singled, driving in two additional runs before the inning ended with Hanska leading 9-5.
The Tigers went back to work in the sixth, getting singles from Max Salazar and Zach Bisel, along with a walk to Menage to load the bases with just one down. Portner battled back to get a pair of strikeouts to end the threat and maintain the four run lead.
After a fifteen minute delay due to two banks of lights going out, Landon Rathmann crushed a solo homer near the right-center field scoreboard to make the score 10-5. Salazar retired the next two batters before a pair of walks, a pair of hits and a Springfield error gave Hanska two more runs.
With the score 12-5, neither pitcher allowed a hit in the final two frames. Portner walked a batter in each inning. While Salazar retired the Lakers six-up and six-down to yield the seven run victory for Hanska.
Matt Vogel led Springfield with two of their six hits. Adam Schmid, Max Salazar, Brent Haseleu, and Zach Bisel rounded out the Tiger offensive output. Derek Wilfahrt had a huge night out of the two-hole for Hanska with four hits, including a triple, three runs batted in and two runs scored. No other Laker had more than one hit on the night. Eric Portner picked up the win, working five strong innings, allowing just two hits while striking out ten. Jake Miesen took the loss, hurling four and two-thirds innings, giving up eight runs, five earned, on five hits with four strikeouts, but six walks.
The loss drops Springfield to 10-11 in the Tomahawk East and 10-15 overall. The Tigers will wrap up the regular season on Sunday night when they head to Stark for a match-up with the Longhorns at 7:30pm. We'll see you at the yard!
NOTES: Only two players had started all twenty-four of the Tigers' ballgames this season: Christian Loomis and Zach Bisel. Those streaks came to an end on Friday night as they were late arrivals in Hanska due to coaching a contest earlier in the evening...Bisel's streak of catching came to an end at 204 1/3 innings...Jake Miesen's last start was also in Hanska on May 29, 2011...The Tigers have not hit double-digits in the hit column for the last five games. They are averaging just six hits per game over that stretch...The game was not the first that the Tigers have had delayed in Hanska due to issues with the lights. Their game against the Lakers was delayed 20 minutes in 2010 in a similar situation.
Linescore
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | LOB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springfield | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 10 |
| Hanska | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | x | 12 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
Springfield Box
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Menage, RF | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Loomis, 2B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vogel, 2B/RF | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2B |
| A. Fink, C/SS | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| R. Sturm, 3B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Schmid, DH | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Brandl, PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Miesen, P | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Mi. Salazar, P | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| M. Salazar, 1B | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Mx. Salazar, LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Beyer, CF | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | HP(2) |
| Haseleu, SS | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | SAC |
| Bisel, C | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 32 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 12 | ||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ||
| Miesen (L, 0-1) | 4 2/3 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 4 | |
| Mi. Salazar | 3 1/3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Pictures
