Missed Opportunities Doom Tigers

6/16/13

After playing on the road for nearly a month, Springfield returned home to the friendly confines of Riverside Park and a great Father's Day evening crowd to host Searles. The Tigers sported their new red jerseys for the first time and were seeing red as they hit the ball hard against Searles starter Cole Dulas. Searles tied the game in the eighth and took the lead in the top of the ninth. Springfield battled back to tie it at four. It then took five extra frames, fourteen in all, before Searles pushed across a run for a 5-4 win.

Right-hander Brandon Wilhelmi took the ball for the Tigers. The Grizzlies were able to start the scoring with an unearned run in the top of the first, taking advantage of a Springfield error. The Grizzlies matched Springfield's error with one of their own in the bottom of the inning. This allowed the Tigers to tie the game at one apiece.

Yet another miscue began the second inning and Kyle Fischer made the Tigers pay by driving in Searles' second run of the night. Searles returned the favor with a two-out error in the bottom of the third to allow Springfield to tie the game at two.

Wilhelmi helped himself when he started the home half of the fifth with a base hit. A sac bunt moved him into scoring position. Then Alex Fink smoked a ball into the right field corner for an RBI double to make the score 3-2.

The unearned runs in the first two innings didn't rattle Wilhelmi. He settled in during innings three through seven, scattering three hits. He was extremely efficient during that stretch, including working a four and a five pitch inning.

The Grizzlies three hitter Steve Kloeckl evened things when he started the eighth with a solo homer into the pine trees beyond the left field fence. The ball was tattooed, perhaps with a little extra something on it, as Kloeckl was serving as the evening's "beer batter".

With the score knotted at three in the ninth, a pair of Tiger miscues and sac fly put Searles up, 4-3. Wilhelmi got on board to start the bottom of the ninth. Another sac bunt from Jacob Menage moved him into scoring position and Ryan Sturm came through with a two-out single to even things at four.

Both starting pitchers went nine, but more pitching was needed with a extra innings. Dan Blackstad took over the mound duties for the Grizzlies and Jason Nachreiner did so for the Tigers. Blackstad and Nachreiner locked horns in the extra frames, exchanging zeros through four innings of work. Nachreiner allowed just one hit during those first four innings, facing just two batters over the minimum.

Finally, in the top of the fourteenth, Searles put together back-to-back singles to get runners at the corners. A sacrifice fly to deep left-center field gave them a 5-4 lead. The Tigers got at least one base runner in each of the extra innings against Blackstad, but just couldn't get that clutch knock when they needed it. They stranded the potential winning or tying run in scoring position in three of the final four innings. Their best chance came in the thirteenth when they loaded the bases with no outs, but it just wasn't meant to be, as they came up on the short end, 5-4 in 14 innings.

Jacob Menage, Alex Fink, and Ryan Sturm all came through with two hits each for the home team. Brandon Wilhelmi, Zach Bisel, and Cooper Scheffler added one each to the Springfield attack. Kyle Fischer led Searles with three hits, while Steve Kloeckl and Cole Dulas added two hits each. Neither starting pitcher figured in the decision, even though they both worked nine innings. Dan Blackstad picked up the victory for the Grizzlies, working five scoreless innings, giving up just one hit, and striking out five, but issuing five walks and hitting two batters. Jason Nachreiner took the tough loss, also working the final five innings, allowing one run on three hits, with two strikeouts.

The loss drops the Tigers to 7-2 in Tomahawk East League play and 9-4 overall on the season. Springfield will look to get back in the win column on Wednesday night as they continue this busy stretch of their schedule, playing host to the Essig Bluejays at Riverside Park. First pitch is scheduled for 8:00pm. Go Tigers!

NOTES: Searles pitchers combined to walk seven and hit seven Springfield batters. However, only two of those fourteen free base runners came around to score. On the other hand, Tiger pitchers Wilhelmi and Nachreiner combined to issue just one free pass over fourteen innings of work...Springfield's new jerseys sport "Tigers" in script on the front. It's the first time in a long time that the Springfield amateur team has had something other than an "S" or "Springfield" on their chest. The inspiration was drawn from the Tiger town team uniforms of the 1960s. The Tigers have worn the blue button-down jerseys with the red "S" since 2008 and they may still be used going forward...The 14 innings played on Sunday night is the longest game the Tigers have been involved in since prior to 1998. They have played several twelve inning games since then with the most recent coming in 2009.

Scorecard

• Sunday, June 16, 2013 - Searles at Springfield (PDF)

Linescore

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	R	H	E	LOB
Searles	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	5	11	4	10
Springfield	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	9	4	19

Springfield Box

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
Wilhelmi, P/LF	4	4	1	0	1	0	HP(3)
Menage, RF	4	0	2	0	1	1	SAC(3)
Fink, SS	4	0	2	1	3	0	2B, 3B
Sturm, 3B	7	0	2	2	0	1
Loomis, 2B	7	0	0	0	0	0
Anderson, DH	3	0	0	0	1	1	HP(2)
Vogel, DH	1	0	0	0	0	0
Mx. Salazar, LF	-	-	-	-	-	-
Nachreiner, P	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ma. Salazar, 1B	6	0	0	0	0	0	HP
Bisel, C	5	0	1	0	1	1	HP
Scheffler, CF	7	0	1	0	0	2
	48	4	9	4	7	6
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Wilhelmi	9	8	4	1	0	2
Nachreiner (L, 0-1)	5	3	1	1	1	2

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