WACONIA FLOORED
Tigers Ride Four-Run First to Victory; at Le Sueur Tonight

--By Brett Kruschke

Belle Plaine took an important first step in what is hopefully just a two-step process to advance, opening the Carver Central League Red playoffs with an 8-3 victory at home over red-hot Waconia. Tonight Team Tigertown will venture to the land of the Jolly Green Giant to take on Mike Fritz and the #1 seeded Le Sueur Braves-game time, 7:30pm.

If the Tigers win, they advance to Region 4C play and Saturday's CCL Red championship at 6pm that night; should they lose, they will play an elimination game Friday between the loser of tonight's game and the winner of the Carver / Waconia game to get there. Please see the accompanying bracket for further details.

The Region 4C tournament begins next Wednesday; look for information regarding this next week, should it be pertinent. The state tournament begins August 14th and Christmas falls on a Thursday this year.

BP 1 @ Green Isle 4 (Wednesday, July 16th)
The word juggernaut comes to mind. When the Tigers first met Green Isle in the Tigertown Classic on June 7th, the Green and Gold entered as the talk of Class 'C' amateur baseball, with a perfect 16-0 mark. (The Irish defeated the Tigers 2-1 that afternoon.) Over a month later, not much had changed, as the Irish began play with a 31-3 mark and the #1 team ranking in Class 'C'. And here came the putt-putt Tigers, rolling into town at a meager 13-13.

Mike Murphy was seeking redemption after a few subpar relief outings, and find it he did with six innings of two-hit baseball. Unfortunately, an error of his own and another in the fifth inning led to a pair of unearned runs, which would be all that Green Isle stud pitcher Brian Jenneke would need. The Tigers could take small solace in the fact that they actually bumped up Jenneke's ERA-with one earned run, it rose from 0.84 to 0.86. Big whoop, I know.

Joe Kreger's Green Machine led just 2-1 until scoring a pair of runs of reliever Jeff "Hot Dog" Miller in the eighth. There were only seven hits in the ballgame-all singles-with a paltry two of those belonging to Belle Plaine.

With apologies to Nick Kornder, if you want to see perhaps the finest amatuer baseball team website around, go to www.greenisleirish.net. As Homer once declared, "Ooh! The internet is on computers now!"

BP 9 @ Union Hill 4 (Thursday, July 17th)
It's late, I'm tired, Zip Zellmann did great in relief of Dan Huber, the mosquitoes were horrible. Tigers defeat the sign-stealing Jeff Bruder behind a six-run fifth.

Waconia 3 @ BP 8 (Monday, July 21st)
There are only two things in life that scare me-nuclear war, and carny folk. Third on that list for Belle Plaine fans might be righthander Rob Wagener, who was starting at third base rather than on the mound, after having shackled the Tigers several times the last two years. True, Tiger Nation jumped on the aforementioned in a June 12 start, but word is he was flat due to trying to pitch on one-days' rest.

No sooner did the Tigers realize this fortune than did Pat Schultz cross the plate in the bottom of the first after a two-run homerun, giving the hometowners a 4-0 lead off Josh Brandenberg. Another run in the second showed the mighty Tigers were woman, hear them roar.

Shane Hofmann was absolutely in charge, cruising through seven innings with a 5-0 lead before the locals would tack on three more for an 8-0 bulge. The fiesty bulldog gave up no walks and four singles, striking out two. We have a bingo.

Randy Stender put the Tiger faithful to the test by allowing three runs in the eighth, prompting some to wonder if there weren't still some fireworks left from the night before. But Miller relieved and after giving up a single, closed out the ballgame.

Dan Huber, Trace Selly, Daron "DeTrishous" Anderson and Pat Schultz all enjoyed multi-hit efforts, with Schultz driving home four. The veteran minor is clipping at a .380 pace this season.

This page was created and maintained by Nick Kornder, Sports Information Director at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. The views and ideas on this page are that of the author, and not those of the University of Minnesota.