May 10, 2006
TIGERS SPLIT A PAIR
Need to Oil the Gloves
--by Brett Kruschke
Need to Oil the Gloves
--by Brett Kruschke
With seven rookies and an average roster age of 22.5, the Tigers know there’s going to be some ups-and-downs this season. And that’s pretty much what happened over the weekend, as the locals downed Young America 7-2 on Friday, only to fall 11-4 to Jordan in the league opener on Sunday. The Tigers committed an appalling 13 errors over the two games, so frankly were quite fortunate to get one win on the weekend.
Tonight (Wednesday) the Tigertown Nine will host Arlington at 7:30 pm, in the someday-it-could-be-famous “ Battle for the Red Helmet.” As the Tigers have gone promotion-crazy a la the St. Paul Saints, it will be the first of two Locher Bros. / Miller Lite Nites out at Tiger, with giveaways throughout the game. There will also be $1 beers in the 3 rd and 7 th innings.
| 5/5/06 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
| Young America | 0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
| Belle Plaine | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
X |
7 |
9 |
8 |
I’ve seen my share of baseball games over the years, but I’d like to know if anybody else has ever seen a team commit eight errors, and yet win by five runs. I know I never have. And I’m still not quite sure how to explain it. But that’s what happened – against a pretty quality club in Young America (15-10, 9-7 in the Crow River last year) – on Friday.
Tiger starter Shane Hofmann worked around errors early, but a pair more finally caught up to him in the 4 th, when Young America pushed across the game’s first two runs. Meanwhile, Cardinal starter Jeff Arnold was putting a bow on his five shutout innings, which included 10 strikeouts.
Halfway home, things were looking bleak, but with the magic of prom night in the air, two young Tigers sought to make it “A Night to Remember.”
Manager Dave Kreft got bang-up relief work from Dave Feldt and Jonny Schulz, to put it mildly: the two combined to throw five scoreless innings, allowing only a ninth-inning single, with Schulz recording the save. The dazzling duo also wreaked havoc with the sticks, going 3-for-7 with 3 RBIs. Mantle / Maris, Mauer / Morneau… Feldt / Schulz??
The Tigers big inning was the 6 th, as they roughed up reliever Brandon Stender and plated five before it was all over. They added two more in their last cracks in the 8 th, for the final total.
There was some excitement in the 8 th, when yours truly slid into third and grotesquely dislocated my left pinky finger, but luckily EMT Brad Connolly was on hand to help out. I’d also like to mention that I really can’t afford to take out an ad in next week’s Herald to thank everyone for all the flowers, cards, and well-wishes, so hopefully this will suffice.
Making their Tiger, and town team, debuts, were Ben Jass and Ryan Dressen. And yes, that’s a fine.
| Belle Plaine TIGERS (1-0, 0-0) | ||||||
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
Avg. |
|
| Volek, lf-2b | 5 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
.400 |
| Kreft, 3b | 3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| P. Schultz, c | 2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.000 |
| Weldon, cf | 3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.333 |
| R. Witt, 1b | 3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.333 |
| N. Selly, ph | 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Feldt, rf-p-rf | 3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
.667 |
| Dressen, pr | 0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Connolly, dh | 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| S. Hofmann, p | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Schuneman, rf-lf | 3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
| J. Schulz, 2b-p | 4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
.250 |
| Kruschke, pr | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Jass, ss | 4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
| TOTALS | 32 |
7 |
9 |
7 |
4 |
.282 |
| 2B – Weldon. 3B – none. HR – none. | ||||||
| HBP – none. SB – R.Witt. | ||||||
| Pitcher | IP |
H |
R/ER |
BB/K |
NP |
ERA |
| S. Hofmann | 4 |
3 |
2/1 |
2/1 |
66 |
2.25 |
| Feldt (W, 1-0) | 2 |
0 |
0/0 |
1/0 |
30 |
0 |
| J. Schulz (Sv, 1) | 3 |
1 |
0/0 |
1/2 |
45 |
0 |
| 5/7/06 | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
| Jordan | 2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
11 |
16 |
3 |
| Belle Plaine | 0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
A nice crowd came out for “Dollar Dog Day”, and they would get their money’s worth, if not in the hot dog line, at least in length of game. Probably all you need to know about how this one turned out, is the pitch counts of the three Tiger hurlers, who went three innings each: starter Dave Kreft, 98; Ben Jass, 66; Ryan Witt, 80.
The Tigers did pluck a little bit, and had the score at 8-4 after seven. But the Bruins – I mean, Brewers – added three more in the 9 th to make a late rally all but impossible.
The sub-plot of the game was former Tiger Trace Selly against his brother and current Tiger Nick Selly, who came out of retirement just to flash his 40-inch pythons. Older brother Trace finished 1-for-6, while younger brother Nick went 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit, RBI-double. Plus, Nick has huge pythons. Advantage: Selly the younger.
We don’t cover the opposition much in this column, but it deserves mention that Mark Hess played a nasty third base for Jordan, and should the Carver Central hand out Gold Gloves this year, he should get one based solely on this performance. Good gracious.
Making their town team and Tiger debuts in this one were Matt Schultz, Bradley Lawson, Paul Dressen, and Eric Lyons. $20 more bucks for the kitty.
| Belle Plaine TIGERS (1-1, 0-1) | ||||||
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
Avg. |
|
| Schuneman, cf | 4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Kreft, p-3b-1b | 2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
| Connolly, 1b | 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| P. Schultz, c | 3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.200 |
| M. Schultz, ph-c | 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Hartmann, dh | 3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
| Lawson, ss | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
| R. Witt, 1b-p | 2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.200 |
| N. Selly, ph | 1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
| Feldt, rf | 3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
P. Dressen, ph |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
| Volek, lf | 2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Schuster, lf | 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
| J. Schulz, 2b | 3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.286 |
| R. Dressen, 2b | 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Jass, 3b-p | 2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
| Lyons, 3b | 2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| TOTALS | 32 |
4 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
.188 |
| 2B – N.Selly, Feldt. 3B – none. HR – none. | ||||||
| HBP – none. SB – none. | ||||||
| Pitcher | IP |
H |
R/ER |
BB/K |
NP |
ERA |
| Kreft (L, 0-1) | 3 |
5 |
4/4 |
5/3 |
98 |
9 |
| Jass | 3 |
5 |
3/3 |
3/4 |
66 |
9 |
| R. Witt | 3 |
6 |
4/3 |
4/4 |
80 |
9 |
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.