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Monday, 23 July 2007 |
By BRIAN SMITH
Sports Editor
BRYAN — If baseball followed scripts, New Bremen’s game against Northmont on Sunday night might have ended differently.
But even if improbable bases loaded escapes and scraping out runs via home theft appeal to cinematic sensibilities, collecting two hits doesn’t usually win baseball games in the real world.
“That was pretty much it,” New Bremen coach Gregg McCollum said. “We couldn’t get anyone on base. We had to manufacture our two runs.”
Not that there wasn’t drama as Northmont slid past New Bremen, 3-2, in a second-round state ACME tournament game at Bryan on Sunday night.
The loss for New Bremen came a day after the Cardinals pounded Ben Logan to advance in the tournament. The Cardinals now face Perrysburg on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Bryan.
New Bremen grabbed a brief 2-1 lead in the second inning by scoring a pair of runs on just one hit and some crafty baserunning plays.
Brad Wendel led the top of the second off with a walk. Two batters later, Dylan Crisp reached via an error and stole second.
Adam Meyer followed that up with a bloop over the second baseman’s head for an RBI single that tied the game, 1-1.
With Curt Brown at the plate, the Cardinals went to a first-and-third steal play that draws the throw at second while the runner at third steals home.
The play worked to perfection and New Bremen led, 2-1.
Northmont starter Brian Daniel was too strong, however. He gave up just two hits over seven innings and befuddled New Bremen’s line-up that pounded out 17 hits the night before.
“Hats off to him,” McCollum said. “He pitched a great game.”
Anthony Moeder almost matched Daniel’s performance, even if it was a twisting, nailbiting travail.
Twice Moeder loaded the bases — once with no outs and another with two outs.
In the fifth inning, two singles and an error loaded the bases with nobody out, and Moeder faced a 3-0 count against Kevin Tolle.
Moeder poured in two strikes before Tolle turned on a fastball. The laser was stabbed in the air by thirdbaseman Cory Barlage, who tagged the bag for the double play.
His throw to first for the triple play was just late, but the play rescued Moeder and was eerily similar to a play Barlage made at the district level in Coldwater that was an unofficial quadruple play.
“I was trying to do it again,” Barlage said, coming off the field.
Northmont scored its first run in the first inning on a throwing error. Northmont tied that game at 2-2 on another error.
They picked up the go-ahead run in the fourth on a sac fly by Daniel.
Northmont got the lead-off runner on base five of the six innings at-bat.
The final at-bat of the game ended controversially, as New Bremen’s coach Gregg McCollum disputed the count after it appeared that Daniel lost control in the top of the seventh. He walked a batter with two outs and appeared to go to a 2-0 count as Northmont coach J.T. Thomson came out to the mound to settle down his southpaw.
The umpire called the second pitch a strike, however.
Daniel got Curt Brown to swing over a pitch to end the game with a strike out.
Moeder was robbed of extra bases to lead off the top of the sixth inning on a diving catch by Chase Belton.
“If that drops, I think we might get rolling,” McCollum.” |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 July 2007 )
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