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TIGERS COOL OFF

--By Brett Kruschke

A perky 6-0 start in league play quickly came crashing down when the Tigers played a pair of duds over the last week. El Fieldo committed five errors in each game, and also drew just one walk over the two games with no stolen bases. Benefiting from these atrocities were the Le Sueur Bunting Braves—6-2 victors on Thursday night—and Jordan on Sunday, who shook a 2-2 tie in the seventh to win 7-2.

Belle Plaine is circling the wagons and will next see action this Friday, when they host the Arlington A’s at 7:30pm. Sunday will see Tigertown’s Warriors trekking to Waconia, for a special noon-time (12:00pm) start. The Tigers will also host Prior Lake on Tuesday (7:30pm), before taking a week off over the 4 th of July holiday.

El Selectivito’s record is 7-5 overall, 6-2 in Carver Central League play. Come on out and check out the beautiful facelift Tiger Park is undergoing!

Le Sueur 6 @ BP 2 (Thursday, June 17)

The Bunting Braves came out afire as the first four men hit safely and the next man walked, scoring two in the inning, off starter Shane Hofmann. The hit parade would continue, but the Bunting Braves would not score again until also notching a single run in the fourth after yes again, the first four men of the inning hit safely. In all, Hofmann was radiated for 14 hits in seven innings, and left trailing 4-2.

The Tigers struck for single runs in the fourth and fifth; this would be all their final sniff of the night. Starter Zach Johnson, a lefty, was effective until turning it over late to the bullpen. Aaron Jerdee was not in long before succumbing to European vacationer “Clark W.” Johnny Schaffler. The one-time Tiger draftee worked quickly and blazed his way to a save. Belle Plaine tallied eleven hits on the night but couldn’t seem to put anything together.

This week’s “Something you don’t see every game” had to be Le Sueur—who forevermore in this column will be known as the Bunting Braves—dropping a good 10, 12 bunts. It looked like a Brett Kruschke round of batting practice. It’s hard to be too bossy when the team in question won, but it was quite the odd exhibition.

Jordan 7 @ BP 2 (Sunday, June 20)

The Tigers saw another lefty in developing ace Jacob Wolf of Jordan. The Tigers aren’t as lefty intensive as they used to be, not even close—but the formula seemed to work again. (Please join me next week as I give away the final secrets of How to Beat the Tigers, Volume 3.)

Dan Huber took the mound for City 150, allowing the first man of the game to score after singling, then surrendering another run in the third for a 2-0 Jaguar, Hubmen, I mean Brewers lead. I like the Larcas myself but I only have one vote. However, Huber settled down as he usually does after 75 pitches, and departed after seven with just two tallies against him.

The Tiger Train plucked for a run in the fifth when Adam Hoffman scored a quality out with an RBI groundout; then, in the sixth, a one-out hustling double from Trace Selly didn’t go for naught when he scored on an RBI single from Jeff “Grill Grill Grill!” Witt.

The Train was again playing sloppy ball, but found themselves with the leadoff man on in the 7 th in a 2-2 tie game. However, a bunt attempt failed and from then on, it seemed the karma of the Tigers incredibly inept defense came home to roost. Cock-a-doodle crappy-do.

“Captain” Trace Selly continued his torrid hitting, going 2-for-3 to raise his average to a Nathan Muehlenhardt-like mark of .490. Jeff Witt also collected two hits, with the Tigers as a team only having five on the night.

Weighing in at about the halfway point, Team Tigertown is hitting .308 as a team, with a virtually unreal ERA of 2.89. Those who can recall the 1999 season and 8.88 team ERA can relate to my astonishment.

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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.