Brewers Win, Holding Tigers to Just Two Hits

6/23/13

Springfield hosted National Division rival the New Ulm Brewers on Sunday night at Riverside Park. A highlight of the evening was the ceremonial first pitch thrown by Jordan Milbrath. Milbrath was recently drafted and is signing his professional contract this week. The hard-hitting Brewers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first. The Tigers battled back with a pair of runs in the fifth and the score remained tied until three runs in the top of the ninth gave New Ulm a 5-2 win.

Springfield sent Brandon Wilhelmi to the mound. New Ulm used a pair of doubles from Aaron Pfaff and Zach Hoffmann along with an RBI single from Wade French to build a two run lead after the first half inning.

After falling behind, Wilhelmi fought through the tough Brewer lineup keeping them off the scoreboard for the next seven innings. New Ulm had opportunities, but Wilhelmi would not let them cross the plate, stranding ten runners in the second through the eighth.

New Ulm hurler Chris Cariveau kept the Tigers off balance facing the minimum in six of his nine innings of work. The fifth inning, however, was unlike the rest of his night's work when he battled some control issues. In that inning, he walked two, hit three batters, and added a wild pitch to spot Springfield two runs without them putting the bat on the ball.

Cariveau turned the page after the rough fifth and retired the side in order over the next three frames. Unfortunately, Wilhelmi ran out of steam in the top of the ninth. French clubbed a two-run double to end Wilhelmi's night and put the Brewers on top 4-2. Jason Nachreiner took over the mound duties and was touched for a run scoring single to put New Ulm up by three.

A hit batter and a single by Marc Salazar, just Springfield's second of the night, got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with one out. This time Cariveau worked his way out of the jam to get the final two outs and the win.

Christian Loomis and Marc Salazar had the only Tiger knocks in the game. The Brewers had a quartet of batters with two hits on the night in Cory Ranweiler, Zach Hoffmann, Wade French, and Jace Marti. Chris Cariveau earned the complete game win, giving up two earned runs, on just two hits with eight strikeouts, but walking two and hitting five batters. Brandon Wilhelmi suffered his first loss of the season, going eight and one-third, allowing five runs, all earned, on ten hits with two strikeouts.

The loss drops the Tigers to 10-7 overall and 8-5 in the Tomahawk East. They'll rest up during the week and prepare to host the Gibbon Reds on Friday night as part of Riverside Days weekend. Come on down and cheer on your boys of summer! See you at the yard!

NOTES: Jordan Milbrath will be heading to Arizona to play for the AZL Indians, the Cleveland Indians Rookie level team. In Milbrath's last appearance on the mound at Riverside Park, before throwing out the first pitch on Sunday night, he picked up a win for the Tigers on May 19th against St. James. This season he also notched two saves on May 26th against Sleepy Eye and Stark. We wish Milly all the best as he begins his professional baseball career!...The Friday night game of Riverside Days weekend has a tendency to bring out the rain.

Scorecard

• Sunday, June 23, 2013 - New Ulm at Springfield (PDF)

Linescore

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
New Ulm	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	5	11	0	13
Springfield	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	2	3	6

Springfield Box

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
Wilhelmi, P/LF	2	0	0	1	0	0	HP(2)
Menage, RF	3	0	0	0	1	1
Fink, SS	4	0	0	0	0	0
Sturm, 1B	4	0	0	0	0	2
Loomis, 2B	2	1	1	0	1	1	HP
Ma. Salazar, DH	3	1	1	0	0	0	HP
Scheffler, CF	-	-	-	-	-	-
Nachreiner, P	-	-	-	-	-	-
Vogel, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	2
Bisel, C	4	0	0	0	0	1
C. Milbrath, LF/CF	2	0	0	0	0	1	HP
	28	2	2	1	2	8
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Wilhelmi (L, 3-1)	8 1/3	10	5	5	3	2
Nachreiner	2/3	1	0	0	0	1

Pictures