Express Tops Tigers in Opener
5/3/09
It was a beautiful day for baseball as the Tigers opened the 2009 season with an exhibition game against the Tracy Express at Riverside Park. Former Leavenworth Oriole pitcher, Jason Nachreiner, made his return to amateur baseball taking the ball for the home team. Each Tiger pitcher had one rough inning that accounted for all the Tracy scoring.
After Nachreiner worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the first, Ken Sather, making his Tiger debut, started the bottom of the inning with a walk. Brent Haseleu was hit by a pitch and Brady Schwab moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. Matt Baier followed with a base hit to score Sather and give Springfield a 1-0 lead.
The lead wouldn't last long as the Express worked back-to-back walks to start the second. After a fly out, Tracy put together a double and a triple and took advantage of a wild pitch to plate four runs. Nachreiner settled in after the tough second to face just one batter over the minimum during his final 3 1/3 innings of work.
Springfield was able to get at least one runner on base in every inning, but lost two runners who were thrown out at the plate. The score remained 4-1 until the bottom of the sixth. Dave Groebner worked a one-out walk. Adam Beers reached on a fielder's choice and advanced to third base on two straight wild pitches. Marty Brandl brought Beers in to score with a double to right field, cutting the Tracy lead to two.
Schwab took the hill for Springfield in the top of the sixth. He retired five of the first six batters he faced. The Express were then able to string together three hits including a bases loaded triple to run their tally to seven. The Tigers took advantage of two Tracy errors in the bottom of the seventh to make the final 7-3.
Marty Brandl led the offense with two hits. Ken Sather, Brent Haseleu, Matt Baier, and Adam Beers each added a hit to the Tiger attack. Jason Nachreiner took the loss, allowing four runs in 5 innings. Springfield will open Tomahawk East League play next Sunday when they travel to New Ulm to take on the Brewers at Johnson Park at 2pm.
Linescore
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | LOB | |
| Tracy | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 7 |
| Springfield | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 10 |
Springfield Box
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | |||
| Sather, CF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Haseleu, 2B/SS | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | SAC, HP | |
| Schwab, SS/P | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | SAC, HP | |
| Baier, C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Groebner, 1B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Beers, LF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Brandl, RF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2B | |
| A. Wilhelmi, 3B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | SAC | |
| Nachreiner, P/2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 25 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||
| Nachreiner (L, 0-1) | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Schwab | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
Pictures
