Tigers Come Up Short in Pitcher's Duel
5/20/12
Springfield continued their Tomahawk East schedule on Sunday night with a date against St. James at Riverside Park. Jordan Milbrath and Joe Hager locked horns in a duel that was scoreless going into the seventh inning. The A's got half of their six hits consecutively in the seventh to take a 2-0 lead on their way to a 3-1 win.
Milbrath took the ball for the Tigers in his first start of the 2012 campaign. He was in midseason form having just completed his college season. Milbrath allowed just one infield single through the first six innings.
St. James southpaw Hager matched Milbrath's zeros with blanks of his own scattering three Springfield singles through the first six frames. Neither starter faced more than four batters through six innings.
In the top of the seventh, the A's got back-to-back one-out infield singles. Ryan Menssen put St. James on the board with a solid single. With a fielder's choice the Tigers were within one out of getting out of the jam, but an errant throw on a stolen base attempt allowed St. James to extend their lead to 2-0.
The Tigers fought back in the home-half of the eighth when Zach Bisel started things with a base hit. Marc Salazar took Bisel's place on the bases via a fielder's choice. Salazar moved up to second on a wild pitch. Ryan Sturm worked the count full before ripping a ground rule double to left-center field, scoring Salazar to get Springfield within one. Hager worked his way out without any further damage to retain the lead.
The ninth saw Chris Menssen start things with a solid single. A wild throw on a pick-off attempt moved him over to second base. Hager helped himself being moving Menssen to third on a ground out. Next Ryan Menssen picked up his second RBI on a sacrifice fly, making the score 3-1.
Christian Loomis smashed a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth, but Hager got the final two outs to earn the 3-1 complete game victory.
The Tigers hit the ball hard all night, but didn't end up with much to show for it. Christian Loomis led the Springfield offense with two singles. Ryan Sturm added an RBI double. Alex Fink, Zach Bisel, Marc Salazar and Jacob Menage rounded out the Tiger hits with one each. Chris Menssen led the way for St. James with two hits. Ryan Menssen had one hit and drove in two runs. Joe Hager picked up the complete game victory, allowing one run on seven hits, with four strikeouts. Jordan Milbrath also went the distance for the home team, giving up three runs, one earned, on six hits, with ten strikeouts in the loss.
The loss drops the Tigers to 1-2 in league play and 1-3 overall on the season. Next up they'll play host to Sleepy Eye on Friday night in an 8:00 tilt. Come cheer on the Tigers as they look to get back to .500 in the Tomahawk East!
Linescore
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | LOB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St.James | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 4 |
| Springfield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 9 |
Springfield Box
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Fink, SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | HP |
| Bisel, C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Salazar, 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| R. Sturm, LF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2B |
| Milbrath, P | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Menage, RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vogel, 3B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Loomis, 2B | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | HP |
| Haseleu, 2B | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Beyer, CF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 33 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ||
| Milbrath (L, 0-1) | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
Pictures
