Tigers Blank St. James

5/19/13

Rain earlier in the day required a lot of drying baseballs for the Sunday night contest between Springfield and St. James at Riverside Park, but no rain fell during the fast-paced ballgame. Solid pitching was on display, as the game's pitchers combined to allow just eight hits and three runs, with all the runs scored by the home team for a 3-0 win.

Matt Vogel made his first start of the season on the mound for the Tigers. After allowing a hit and a walk in the top of the first, he settled in, retiring nine straight and facing just three batters in the second through fourth innings.

St. James sent left-hander Joe Hager to the hill. He issued three first inning walks, but kept the Tigers off the board in the opening frame. He matched Vogel's scoreless innings with one's of his own through the fourth.

After retiring the first two batters in the top of the fifth, Vogel struggled to find the zone, walking three straight batters on fifteen pitches. Springfield manager Steve Helget turned the mound duties over to Jordan Milbrath who promptly notched a strikeout to get the Tigers out of the bases-loaded jam.

Springfield was able to take advantage of a two-out base hit from Max Salazar in the fifth, followed by a St. James error to start the scoring.

Given the 1-0 lead, Milbrath was a strikeout machine. He struck out eight of the first nine batters he faced with just one ball put into play.

Marc Salazar hustled his way to a double to begin the home half of the seventh. He moved up to third on a ground out. Cole Milbrath dropped down a squeeze bunt to bring Salazar home and was credited with a base hit when a play couldn't be made on the ball. An errant pick-off attempt allowed Cole to go to second before Brandon Wilhelmi smoked a double to bring him in to score.

The A's were able to get one runner on in both the eighth and ninth innings, but were unable to advance past first in either instance, giving Springfield a 3-0 victory.

No batter for either team had a multi-hit game. For Springfield, Brandon Wilhelmi, Alex Fink, Christian Loomis, Marc Salazar, Cole Milbrath, and Max Salazar all recorded one hit each. St. James got one hit from Anthony Stordalen and Austin Pinke. On the mound, Jordan Milbrath picked up the victory in his first appearance of the season, working the final four and one-third innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out ten. Joe Hager went the distance for St. James in a solid effort, surrendering three runs, two earned, on six hits with five strikeouts.

The win improves Springfield's record to 3-0 in the Tomahawk East and 4-0 on the year. On Friday night the Tigers will start a busy Memorial Day weekend with a trip to Sleepy Eye. The Tigers will also suit up on Sunday night and Monday afternoon during the upcoming weekend. See you in Sleepy Eye!

NOTES: The Tigers welcomed Alex Fink and Jordan Milbrath back to the lineup after both put together solid college seasons for Augustana. Milbrath will again be headed to the Northwoods League at the end of the month, returning to the Rochester Honkers, after playing for them last summer...Springfield currently has three sets of brothers on the roster: Jordan and Cole Milbrath, Marc, Mike and Max Salazar, and Derek and Bryant Krebs...In 2012, Springfield was two-hit on three occasions, but never held their opponents to less than four hits in a game.

Scorecard

• Sunday, May 19, 2013 - St. James at Springfield (PDF)

Linescore

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
St. James	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	8
Springfield	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	x	3	6	1	6

Springfield Box

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
Wilhelmi, SS/CF	3	0	1	1	1	0	2B
Bisel, C	4	0	0	0	0	2
Fink, 3B/SS	3	0	1	0	1	0
J. Milbrath, CF/P	3	0	0	0	1	0
Loomis, 2B	4	0	1	0	0	1
Ma. Salazar, 1B	4	1	1	0	0	1	2B
Vogel, P/3B	3	0	0	0	0	0
C. Milbrath, RF	3	1	1	1	0	1
D. Krebs, RF	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mx. Salazar, LF	3	1	1	0	0	0
	30	3	6	2	3	5
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Vogel	4 2/3	1	0	0	4	3
Milbrath (W, 1-0)	4 1/3	1	0	0	1	10

Pictures