Franktime in Redwood Falls

6/13/13

After suffering their first loss of the season in league play last Friday, the Tigers had to wait nearly a week to get back on the field due to rain-outs on Sunday and Wednesday night. Wednesday night's game against Redwood Falls was moved to Thursday night. The only kink in the plan was that Redwood Falls had a Legion baseball game on the field that would need to be finished first. The first pitch of the Tigers vs Redbirds game was thrown at 9:10pm, but a pitcher's duel had the contest wrapped up by 11pm, with Springfield picking up a 3-0 victory.

The evening's pitching matchup pitted Alex Frank for the visitors against John Jenniges for the Redbirds. Alex Fink ripped a two-out double in the top of the first. Ryan Sturm put the Tigers on the board with a base hit, driving in Fink.

Given the 1-0 lead, Frank went to work on a superb pitching performance. In a complete game shutout, he faced only two batters over the minimum. He scattered just four hits and didn't issue a single free pass. The Redbirds best scoring chance came in the bottom of the fourth when Austin Kretsch led off with a single. A sacrifice bunt moved him into scoring position, but Frank retired the three and four batters in the Redbird order to get out of the jam.

Another two-out rally provided Springfield with their second run in the top of the fifth. Fink stoked his second two-bagger of the night. Sturm was hit by a pitch before Christian Loomis came through with an RBI single. Unfortunately, Sturm was thrown out at third to end the inning with the score 2-0.

Sturm took it upon himself to provide an insurance run in the eighth when he launched a majestic solo round-tripper over the left field fence to give Frank and the Tigers a three run lead. That would be the final, 3-0.

Shawn Anderson had an outstanding night at the plate in his debut for the Tigers, going four-for-four. Alex Fink and Ryan Sturm contributed two hits each to the cause. Brandon Wilhelmi and Christian Loomis rounded out the visitor's offense with one hit apiece. No one had more than one hit for the Redbirds. Alex Frank improved his record to 2-0 on the season with a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits, while striking out six. John Jenniges took the tough loss, going the distance, surrendering three earned runs, on ten hits, with seven strikeouts.

The Tigers return home to Riverside Park on Sunday night to meet Searles in their first home game in nearly a month. The win improves their record to 9-3 overall and 7-1 in Tomahawk East League play. See you at the ballpark!

NOTES: Perhaps most impressive about Frank's outing was his pitch break down: 95 pitches - 75 strikes, 20 balls. He did exactly what a pitcher should do to be successful: work ahead in the count and throw strikes. He started 26 of the batters he faced with a strike...Congratulations to Shawn Anderson on his impressive amateur career debut: 4-for-4. The last time a batter clubbed four hits in a game for the Tigers was Matt Baier on July 22, 2011 against Sleepy Eye...Congrats also go out to Jordan Milbrath, currently pitching in the Northwoods League for the Rochester Honkers, who was drafted #1041 by the Cleveland Indians in the 2013 MLB Draft.

Scorecard

• Thursday, June 13, 2013 - Springfield at Redwood Falls (PDF)

Linescore

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
Springfield	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	3	10	0	8
Redwood Falls	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	2

Springfield Box

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
Wilhelmi, LF	5	0	1	0	0	1
Scheffler, CF	4	0	0	0	0	0	SAC
Fink, SS	4	2	2	0	0	1	2B(2)
Sturm, 1B	2	1	2	2	1	0	HR, HP
Loomis, 2B	4	0	1	1	0	1
Vogel, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	0
Kirschstein, 3B	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mx. Salazar, RF	3	0	0	0	0	2
C. Milbrath, RF	1	0	0	0	0	0
Anderson, DH	4	0	4	0	0	0
Frank, P	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bisel, C	3	0	0	0	0	1
D. Krebs, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1
	35	3	10	3	1	7
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Frank (W, 2-0)	9	4	0	0	0	6

Pictures