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Minster shakes off cobwebs, beats Rangers |
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Tuesday, 10 April 2007 |
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 By RANDY WILKER
EL Sports Correspondent
MINSTER – The Minster Wildcat baseball team got the bat on the ball Monday evening and despite the cold weather the balls fell and the Wildcats defeated the New Knoxville Rangers 22-0 in five innings in a non-league game played at Minster.
“We hit the ball well tonight,” Wildcat head coach Mike Wiss said. “We were able to hit the ball when we had runners on base. We also got some good pitching as Allan Heitbrink threw three innings and Jimmy Stechschulte threw two innings and they got the sides in order in all five innings.”
Minster started hitting the ball in the first inning as they scored seven runs to jump out to the 7-0 lead. Zac Boeke began things with one out by singling past the shortstop and he scored on a triple to center by Bob Inskeep. Inskeep came home on an infield single by Aaron Heitbrink.
Eric Bernhold reached on an error and Andrew Baumer reached on a hit batsman and two more runners came home on a double by Alex Monnin. Following a strikeout, Brian Mueller drew a walk to load the bases and the final two runs came home on a single by Dan Mueller who went to second on an error. Boeke drew a walk, but Brad Piehl relieved Jake Lawler and got Inskeep to fly out to end the inning.
In the top of the first inning the Rangers (1-2) got what proved to be their only hit when, with two outs, Kyle Merges singled to center, but was out trying to go to second.
In the bottom of the second inning Minster loaded the bases as the first three batters drew walks and it looked like Piehl might get out of the inning with no runs as Piehl struck out the next two batters, but he gave up a single to Brian Mueller that brought home two runs.
Dan Mueller reached on an hit batsman and two more runs came home on a single to left by Boeke and the fifth run came home on a single by Inskeep to make the score 12-0.
“We had two outs in two innings and it comes down to making the plays,” Ranger head coach John Meinerding said. “We didn’t make those plays tonight. We just have to continue to work at making those plays because we are going to see a lot of tough competition as the season goes on.”
In the fourth and fifth innings the Wildcats (5-0) continued to hit the ball and scored 10 more runs to make the final score 22-0.
“This game always comes down to fundamentals,” Meinerding said. “Pitchers make pitches and the defense makes plays to get out of innings and we definitely didn’t do that tonight.
“I encourage all the youth of New Knoxville to play ball and get better,” Meinerding concluded. “You have to work at it so the program turns around. The fundamentals start with the little league and carry up all the way to high school and for us to get better as a program our fundamentals have to get better. I know the coaches are working from little league up to fix that and work on the fundamentals. The program will not turn around until we get those things straightened out. I told the kids after the game that you know how it feels to win a game and now you know how it feels to get your butt kicked and hopefully they don’t want to feel like that again.”
The Rangers entertain New Bremen Tuesday, while Minster entertains Parkway tonight in a MAC game and Minster will also travel to Celina on Thursday.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 13 April 2007 )
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