Tough Stretch Drops Tigers to 2-6 (--by Brett Kruschke)
May 25th, 2005
Over the winter, Belle Plaine decided to put together a challenging exhibition schedule. To date, that mountain – combined with the mighty struggle of the Tiger bats – has been too high for the locals to climb. Team Tigertown’s record is 2-6 (1-3 CCL) overall after a pair of losses: 4-1 to Plato last Tuesday, May 17th, and 8-4 at St. Francis on Friday.
Belle Plaine is 53 for 261 on the year, a paltry .203 average. (Note to other teams reading this: that means start throwing us more fastballs!) Pitching-wise, the Tigers have been so-so, registering a 4.02 ERA. To boot, Shane Hofmann left the St. Francis game with a pop in his pitching elbow, and Nate Hartmann sprained an ankle at work (we know it wasn’t on the bases) and will miss at least four weeks. The next thing you know, Brad Connolly will sprain his lips while trying to eat a hot dog.
Hopefully by the time you read this, the Tiger Trolley will have bested Veseli, whom they played at Union Hill Tuesday night (Veseli’s field does not have lights). On Thursday, the locals venture to Green Isle to battle a pair of former Tigers in Jeff “Hot Dog” Miller and Pat Moriarty, at 7:30 pm.
The 2003 State Champion Irish are again loaded for bear, having added star pitcher John Schaffler from Le Sueur, after gaining fellow stud Mac Zachow of Gaylord a year earlier. Peter Gammons recently speculated that the Irish could also add Roger Clemens by the trading deadline, if the Astros continue their sub-.500 slide. We’ll have to see how that one plays out. Meanwhile, make the drive to Green Isle on Thursday – it’s always fun when the Tigers and Irish get together.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend! The Tigers will be off, resuming action Thursday, June 2nd at the Chaska Cubs.
Plato 4 @ BP 1 (Tuesday, May 17th)
| 5/17/05 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
| Plato (5-0) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
9 |
1 |
| Belle Plaine (2-4) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
Citing www.bptigertown.com (yes, I will get in a shameless plug in every column this year) as my source, Plato came to Belle Plaine with a 4-0 record, having outscored their opponents 38-3. This just in, but that’s pretty good. Too dumb to know better were the Tigers, who found themselves trailing 1-0 after seven complete, in a very briskly played ballgame.
Jonny Schulz took the ball for the Tigers, and went six solid innings. His only blemish was a solo homerun by cleanup hitter Jon Becker in the sixth. Otherwise, he scattered five hits and a walk.
Ryan Witt worked a 1-2-3 seventh, and turned it over to Dave “Close Shave” Feldt for the eighth. A leadoff walk to the leadoff hitter haunted, as it often does. After a groundout, three consecutive hits led to three runs and a 4-0 lead, sending Feldt to the showers. Mike Schultz stopped the bleeding, but would it matter?
No. El Tigre did respond with one in the bottom of the eighth, on a base hit by Dan “Wildcard” Huber. But that was all she wrote, as the home team tallied just four singles in all.
BP 4 @ St. Francis 8 (Friday, May 20th)
| 5/20/05 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
| Belle Plaine (2-4) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
3 |
| St. Francis (3-0) | 0 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
X |
8 |
14 |
0 |
St. Francis has made the state tournament every year since 1998, except for 2000. They took 4th in 2003, and played in Belle Plaine last year, losing to runner-up Wolf Lake in the first round. The Saints are known for their style as much as their substance, a boisterous crew with strong hitting and tremendous middle-of-the-order power. Both were on display Friday, after the 70-mile trip to St. Francis, and a delayed 8:00 pm start time.
Shane Hofmann started this “exhibition” game, and the scoreless tie was broken when the Saints struck for three in the third. Two came courtesy of a bomb from # 5 hitter Jake Maros, who slugged 14 wood bat homers in 2003, and 10 more last year. To put that in perspective, Belle Plaine, as a team, has hit 13 long balls the past three years of the wood bat era. Yikes, LeRoy.
In the fourth, Tigertown answered when Dave “Sun Dial” Kreft labored from second to home on an RBI single by Ryan Witt. However, St. Francis came back with four in the fourth, making it 7-1, chasing Hofmann and his sore elbow out of the game.
In the seventh, El Tigre made a game out of it by plating three runs, two courtesy of a Pat Schultz single. Starting the rally was what Ralph Wiggum might look like as an adult – DH Brad Connolly – and Johnny “Bloop Me” Schulz, with a walk and base hit, respectively.
But 7-4 was as close as BP would get, and the Saints added one in the 8th for good measure, for an 8-4 final. St. Francis pounded 14 hits. The Tigers forgot their helmets, but it might as well have been the bats, as they collected just six singles. This was the Tigers third consecutive game without an extra base hit. Who knew the dog days of August would come in mid-May.
To fall in line with the rest of the night, the Tigers were even out-karaoked by the Saints at the St. Francis Legion after the game. I’ll take the blame – “We are the World” was a poor choice.
This page was created and maintained by Nick Kornder, Sports Information Director at Northern State University. The views and ideas on this page are that of the author, and not those of Northern State University.