Hadley's Triples Trip Up Tigers

7/2/13

Springfield took a break from Tomahawk East League play to host Hadley in a rare Tuesday night contest for the Tigers at Riverside Park. The Buttermakers did most of their damage with extra-base hits, including three triples, which knocked in four of their seven runs, en route to a 7-3 win.

Hadley sent veteran right hander James Wajer to the mound. While the Tigers hit the ball hard on a number of occasions, they fell victim to several "at 'em balls" to keep them off the bases. Springfield did open the scoring in the bottom of the second when Ryan Sturm led off with a walk. A Hadley miscue followed by a single from Cooper Scheffler loaded the bases. Cole Milbrath put the Tigers on the board with a single, but that would be all they could muster from the scoring opportunity.

Matt Vogel took the ball for the home team. He worked around a pair of hits in the first and retired the side in order in the next two innings to get off to a great start, given the 1-0 lead. That lead was erased in the top of the fourth when Joe Larson started the inning with a single and Max Zwart followed with a double to drive in the tying run. A Tiger error gave the Buttermakers a 2-1 lead.

The tough second was the exception rather than the rule for the Tigers against Wajer as he faced no more than four batters in the third through the seventh innings, keeping Springfield off the scoreboard.

Vogel ran into trouble to start the sixth when Eric Wieneke ripped a triple. After a walk, Zwart smoked another extra-base hit, this time a triple of his own to push across a pair of runs and end Vogel's night. Alex Fink took over on the hill and worked his way out of the inning without any further damage.

Fink allowed an unearned run in the top of the seventh to make the score 5-1. Mike Salazar came on for the eighth. The Buttermakers took advantage of a pair of walks when Nate Wieneke smashed Hadley's third triple of the game to drive in runs six and seven.

Wajer had some control issues in the bottom of the eighth. A hit batter, single, and a walk loaded the bases with one out. Vogel battled through a ten pitch at-bat to draw a walk that pushed across a run. Scheffler knocked in the Tigers second run of the inning on a fielder's choice to make the score 7-3.

Isaac Kirschstein made his amateur mound debut when he pitched a scoreless ninth. Wajer retired the Tigers in order in the bottom of the inning to seal the win for Hadley.

No Springfield batter had more than one hit on the night as Brandon Wilhelmi, Jacob Menage, Ryan Sturm, Matt Vogel, Cooper Scheffler, and Cole Milbrath all had one each. The top five batters in the Hadley order accounted for all of their hits with Eric Wienke leading the way with three hits. Joe Larson and Max Zwart had two each with Zwart knocking in four runs in the contest. James Wajer earned the complete game win, scattering six hits, allowing three earned runs and striking out seven. Matt Vogel took the loss, working five innings, giving up four runs, three earned, on six hits, with two strikeouts.

The loss drops the Tigers to 12-8 overall on the season. Springfield will take a break for the Independence Day holiday and return to action with a doubleheader on Sunday. First, they'll travel to St. James for a makeup game with the A's at 2pm. Then they'll return home to meet Redwood Falls at 7:30pm. The Tomahawk East League will play their All-Star Game Wednesday night in New Ulm as well. Go Tigers!

NOTES: The Tigers battled at the plate, as nine batters in the game fouled off one or more two strike pitches...Springfield dentist Adam Beers played a number of years with Hadley before joining the Tigers to play in 2008 and 2009...Christian Loomis missed his first game of the season as he was off with Zach Bisel coaching the Springfield Junior Bi-County team against Searles. That leaves just three players who have attended all twenty of the Tigers' games this season: Matt Vogel, Marty Brandl, and manager Steve Helget.

Scorecard

• Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - Hadley at Springfield (PDF)

Linescore

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
Hadley	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	2	0	7	9	2	8
Springfield	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	6	2	7

Springfield Box

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
Wilhelmi, C	4	1	1	0	0	1	HP
Menage, RF	4	1	1	0	0	1
Fink, SS/P	4	0	0	0	0	1
Sturm, 1B	2	1	1	0	2	0
Vogel, P/SS/3B/LF	3	0	1	1	1	0
Scheffler, CF	4	0	1	1	0	1
Brandl, DH	4	0	0	0	0	0
Kirschstein, LF/P	-	-	-	-	-	-
Vanderwerf, CF	-	-	-	-	-	-
C. Milbrath, CF/LF	4	0	1	1	0	2
Mi. Salazar, 3B/P	4	0	0	0	0	1
	33	3	6	3	3	7
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Vogel (L, 1-2)	5	6	4	3	1	2
Fink	2	1	1	0	2	1
Mi. Salazar	1	1	2	2	2	1
Kirschstein	1	1	0	0	0	0

Pictures