Blue Earth Wins Another Championship in BP (--by Brett Kruschke)
June 15th, 2005
The Tigertown Classic used to be called the Tigertown “Wood Bat” Classic, but the luster of such a title was gone after the Minnesota Baseball Association changed from aluminum to wood bats in 2002. After watching the Tigers struggle miserably with the bats over three games this weekend, maybe it’s time to host the Tigertown “Aluminum Bat” Classic – anything to help our offensive attack. Belle Plaine did post a 7-0 shutout of Norwood, but lost 4-1 to Freeport and 12-2 to Lonsdale in the consolation game.
The details are gory: El Tigre went 11-for-74 (.149), with one extra-base hit—a Dave Kreft double. That’s alarming even by our own meager standards this season – the locals entered the weekend with a Great Depression-like team average of .221, and watched it plummet to .209. It’s funny we didn’t see some players jumping from the top of the grandstand. Maybe we should change our names from Tigers to “Wood Ticks” – because that’s about the extent of our offensive firepower. (You see, we barely “ticked” the ball with our wood bats – oh, never mind.)
Nonetheless, the tournament itself was outstanding, culminated by a Blue Earth 4-3 victory over Union Hill in the championship. The Bulldogs of Union Hill had the tying and winning runs at 2nd and 3rd, respectively, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, when a strikeout ended the game.
For the Blue Earth Pirates, they received a trophy on Tiger Park’s hallowed grounds for the second time in nine months – the other, of course, being last year’s Class “C” state championship hardware, over Labor Day weekend. A lot of Pirates said this one was sweeter for them and their fans (ok – I just made that up).
7 th Annual Tigertown Classic Results
Game 1 (Friday) – Freeport 4, Belle Plaine 1
Game 2 (Friday) – Union Hill 12, Norwood 2 (6 innings)
Game 3 (Saturday) – Marshall 7, Lonsdale 3
Game 4 (Saturday) – Blue Earth 4, Watkins 2
Game 5 (Saturday) – Lonsdale 6, Watkins 2
Game 6 (Saturday) – Belle Plaine 7, Norwood 0
Game 7 (Saturday) – Union Hill 5, Freeport 2 (semi-finals)
Game 8 (Sunday) – Blue Earth 2, Marshall 1 (semi-finals)
Game 9 (Sunday) – Lonsdale 12, Belle Plaine 2 (consolation)
Game 10 (Sunday) – Blue Earth 4, Union Hill 3 (championship)
Nick Kornder took some great pictures on Friday and Saturday, and they are now posted at www.bptigertown.com. Be sure to check them out, as well as for last night’s result from the St. Peter at Belle Plaine game. A “shout out” as well to all the other volunteers, contributors, and fans at this weekend’s tournament – we really appreciate it.
Upcoming action for the Tigers this week looks a lot like last week’s – but on the road. Team Tigertown will be participating in the 16-team Miller Lite Invitational, hosted by Arlington and Green Isle. The Chatfield Warriors will open against St. Cloud Orthopedic, 9:00 pm this Friday at Arlington. The Striped Tails will then play Saturday at Green Isle – 3:00 pm if they lost, 5:15 pm if they won, against the concurrent result of Kimball / Fairfax. For the full tournament bracket, go to www.greenisleirish.net, and click on Miller Lite Invitational.
On Tuesday, El Tigre will face St. Peter again – this time, at St. Peter. The start time is the usual, 7:30 pm.
Freeport 4 vs. BP 1 (Friday, June 10)
| 6/10/05 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
| Freeport | 0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
| Belle Plaine (3-10, 2-4) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
The first thing you need to know is Freeport is the former Melrose – known as the Black Sox, and with all four Hess brothers (Chad, Nate, Tyler, and Grant) still intact. On the field and off it, these boys still know how to “gitter goin’!” and “gitter done.”
The Black Sox touched starter Mike Schultz for the game’s first run in the third inning, and the Tigers answered back on a Dave Kreft RBI single in the fourth, scoring Dan Weldon. The score remained tied at one through the fifth.
With 7-inning games for this tournament, things were getting late when Freeport put two on in the sixth with one out. That’s when Eric Spanier lauched the tournament’s first home run, sealing the game at 4-1.
Schultz went the distance on the hill, giving up only four hits, while punching out five with one base on balls.
Friday was “All-You-Can-Eat Pork Burger Night” at Tiger Park, and Nathan Muehlenhardt is believed to have set the record by devouring eight of the salty delights. To his new bride Amy – I think the honeymoon is over!
Norwood 0 vs. BP 7 (Saturday, June 11)
| 6/11/05 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
| Norwood | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
| Belle Plaine (4-10, 2-4) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
X |
7 |
4 |
0 |
Dave Kreft threw six shutout innings, and three Norwood errors led to a seven-run fourth for the Tigers. Norwood posted five errors in all, while the Tiger bats collected just four hits for the second straight game. This one was not the poster child for the Tigertown Classic, let’s just put it that way.
Then again, Kreft operated with surgical precision as he has all season, lowering his ERA from 1.00 to a miniscule 0.79. He scattered five hits and walked none, while posting what we’ll assume is a career-high seven strikeouts.
This game also featured the major league debut of Peter “I wish Kruschke would quit so I could have # 11” Schuneman, who went 1-for-2 with an RBI single in the seven-run fourth. Aah Peter, if I only had a nickel for every time someone wished that.
Lonsdale 12 vs. BP 2 (Sunday, June 12)
| 6/12/05 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
| Lonsdale | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
12 |
16 |
1 |
| Belle Plaine (4-11, 2-4) | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
Technically speaking, things were close until the sixth, at which point Belle Plaine trailed 2-0. But by the time the game concluded, the scoreboard showed a complete butt-whooping. Lonsdale lashed out 16 hits in an all-game barrage.
Dan Huber got his first start of the year on the mound, and survived until the ill-fated sixth. Dave Feldt and Zip Zellmann followed in relief, but were the proverbial gas on the fire.
Hitting-wise, the Tigers kicked out only three hits. Nick Volek notched his 1,000 lifetime hit in Belle Plaine – 999 at the softball park, and his first one on town team. Being a rookie, however, I must point out that Nick also got “kirbied” (picked off) as a courtesy runner in the first inning.
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.