--By Brett Kruschke & Jeff Witt
"This is your time!" as Herb Brooks said in the movie Miracle. To explain the Tigers' 6-0 start in CCL play, this has been everybody's time.
Team Tigertown beat the Class-B Shakopee Indians 9-8 on Thursday night and then beat 2003 State Tournament entrant Winthrop for the second time this year-8-3 on Sunday-to go 6-0 in league play and 6-2 overall. The Tigers have won four straight. Friday night's contest, which was scheduled to be played at St. Francis, was cancelled due to a myriad of factors.
NEXT UP for the Tigers-and Tiger fans-is the 5th Annual Tigertown Classic this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the spool-less confines of Tiger Park. Starting things off in this eight-team tourney will be Belle Plaine and Rockford-note the special start time of 6:30pm-this Friday night. Union Hill and New Germany will do battle in Game Two at approximately 8:30pm. The remaining teams in the tournament are Le Sueur and Mayer-who face off at 10:30am Saturday-and Melrose and the Tim Huber-led Marshall A's, who play at 12:45pm. For the full tournament schedule, please see the tournament bracket accompanying this article. All games, other than by 10-run rule, will be seven innings.
You'll note this week's article is brought to you by the tag-team duo of Brett Kruschke and Jeff Witt, the same pair that has brought you insightful broadcasts of Tiger athletics and their famed "Ebony and Ivory" duet (among others) from All-Star karaoke at the Red Door. Jeff covers the Shakopee game for you in his usual vivid detail, while I blather on for the rest of the article - you know the bit.
Belle Plaine 9 @ Shakopee Indians 8 (Thursday, June 3rd)
--by Jeff Witt The short-handed Tigers came into Thursday night's tilt with the Class-B Indians with limited options for a lineup. With Manager Kruschke tending to family issues, the book was handed over to veteran Trace Selly, who proceeded to hand game-time decisions to inactive Jeff Witt. Once again, the collective team came together, put out a solid effort and came away with a victory. After going 1-2-3 in the first, Team Tigertown plated one in the second on a play seldom seen. With Pat Schultz at second and one out, Zip Zellmann scorched a single to the Shakopee left-fielder, who attempted to throw him out at first. When the ball scooted away from the first-baseman, Schultz scored the game's first run. The Tigers added another run in the third, when Schultz plated sizzling hot Selly on an RBI single. Shakopee plated their first two runs to tie the score on back-to-back RBI singles. The Indian rally was ceased by a remarkable play in center by Selly. With two outs, the Shakopee batter lifted a fly ball to deep center. Selly got twisted around a bit, and when correcting himself, his glove caught the cleats on his shoes and fell off of his hand. Without skipping a beat, Selly got under the batted ball and proceeded to make a two-handed, bare-handed catch. A once-in-a-lifetime play for both players and spectators. The Tiger Nine would take the lead in their half of the fifth on Selly's first of three RBIs, this time plating Dan Weldon, who singled and stole second to get in position. After adding another run in the sixth, the floodgates opened up as El Tigre scored four times in the seventh to open an 8-2. Consecutive RBI singles by Weldon, Selly, and Schultz accounted for three of the four runs. Shakopee cut the lead to 8-4 with two runs in their half of the seventh, but the Tigers came back with a run of their own in the eighth on a two-out single by Selly, making the score 9-4. Scoreless in the bottom of the eighth, the Indians rallied in the home half of the ninth to put the game in question. A bases loaded single by Shakopee Veteran Gary Schleper plated two, and when the throw from the outfield got away from the Tiger infielders, the Indians had another run cross the plate, and found themselves down a run with the tying run at second. Dan Huber, who came in to replace Lefty Zellmann, struck out the next batter, and after two walks, struck out the Indian leadoff hitter to stymie the rally and keep the Tigers at a perfect 5-0 in CCL play. Shane Hofmann started on the hill for the Tigers, giving up two earned runs in seven innings, bringing his record to 4-0. Zellmann picked up a hold with his inning and a third of relief, and Huber picked up his first save of the season.
Winthrop 3 @ BP 8 (Sunday, June 6th)
After whooping Winthrop 20-6 a month ago, the Chatfield Warriors expected a much tougher battle this time around. The Tiger 24 fielded another patchwork lineup which has become the rule rather than the exception.
Dan Huber, who had thrown just 4.2 innings this season due a spotty arm, took the mound and ended up going six strong. With the bat, Huber began the Tiger first with a single and after a Dan Weldon double, scored on a sac fly by Trace Selly. A Pat Moriarty RBI-groundout would soon plate Weldon and the Tigers had a 2-0 lead. Huber worked out of trouble all game long except for a Winthrop three-spot in the third, when the Eagles batted around despite the first two men of the inning being retired. But the high-handed ace struck out the nine-hitter with the bases juiced to avoid serious peril. Pluck, pluck, pluck, chip, chip, chip, the Tigers kept after it with 1, 2, 2, and 1 from the fourth through seventh, taking an 8-3 lead that would become the final. Highlighting all this pluckiness was a two-run homer by Dan Weldon in the fifth, his team-leading second of the season. Weldon also doubled, and is hitting a robust .438 on the season. Weldon and Huber, the top two hitters in the Tiger order, had three hits apiece. Jonny Schulz switched spots with Huber in the seventh and worked the final three frames, facing the minimum number of batters and garnering his first career save. Schulz has allowed just one earned run in eight innings pitched this year. The old cliché in baseball goes, "You see something new every game." So in honor of the aforementioned Trace Selly barehanded catch, I'm thinking I may run with this idea for a while or at least until I get bored with it. In the middle innings, a Winthrop batter swung and missed, his bat flying into the visitor's dugout. "You don't see that every game," came the thought-balloon from left field.
