Frank Shuts Out Searles

7/17/13

With the regular season winding down, Springfield headed to Searles to take on the Grizzlies on Wednesday night. While Lamberton and New Ulm have clinched their respective divisions, both the Tigers and the Grizzlies have the chance to finish in second place. All of the game's scoring was confined to just two half-innings as Alex Frank shut down the Searles bats. Alex Fink's three-run homer provided the big blow for the Tigers as they came away with a 6-0 win.

Searles started left hander Tony Mielke on the mound and he was perfect through two innings. Frank took the ball for the visitors and was able to match Mielke's scoreless frames.

Marc Salazar led off the third with a base hit. A sacrifice bunt moved him over to second. Jacob Menage drew a two-out walk and Shawn Anderson picked up his first amateur RBI with a single to drive in Salazar. With two on and two down, Alex Fink got a 3-1 pitch he liked and didn't miss it, launching it well over the scoreboard in right-center field for a three-run homer.

The Tigers drew a pair of walks in the fourth, but couldn't extend their four run lead. The fifth was a different story as the first three batters reached base via a pair of walks and a single. This meant the end of the night for Mielke as the Grizzlies turned things over to Kyle Fischer. Fink greeted Fischer with a sacrifice fly and Christian Loomis made the score 6-0 when he drove in Menage with a double.

Fischer worked his way out of several jams without allowing any additional runs, including leaving the bases loaded in the ninth.

Frank kept the Grizzlies at bay. Searles' best scoring opportunity came in the bottom of the fourth when they had runners at second and third after a pair of hits, but a pair of strikeouts in the inning ended the threat. During the final five innings, Frank scattered three hits, facing no more than four batters in any of the frames, leading to the 6-0 final.

Alex Fink had a big night at the plate with two hits, including the 3-run homer and four RBIs. Christian Loomis also had two knocks on the night. Jacob Menage, Shawn Anderson, Ryan Sturm, Marc Salazar, and Jacob Vanderwerf added one hit each. Corey Hillesheim led Searles with two hits on the night. Alex Frank earned his fifth win of the season, working all nine innings, scattering six hits, and striking out five. Tony Mielke was tagged with the loss for the Grizzlies, going four innings, giving up six runs, all earned, on four hits with two strikeouts, but five walks.

The win improves the Tiger's record to 15-10 overall and 13-7 in the Tomahawk East. Next up, they travel to Hanska on Friday night for a game that could determine the second place finisher in the National Division. Both teams will enter the game with identical 13-7 records. Come on over to Hanlin Field for the 8pm start of this big ballgame!

NOTES: Wednesday marked Ryan Sturm's 30th birthday. Baseball wasn't giving him any birthday presents. He couldn't have hit the ball much harder during the ballgame, but only came away with one hit, a bullet off the backside of pitcher Kyle Fischer...Jacob Vanderwerf picked up the first hit of his amateur career with a single in the top of the eighth...The shutout was Frank's second complete game shutout of the season. The other was a 3-0 win in Redwood Falls.

Scorecard

• Wednesday, July 17, 2013 - Springfield at Searles (PDF)

Linescore

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

Springfield Box

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
Menage, RF	3	2	1	0	2	1
Anderson, DH	3	1	1	1	1	1
Brandl, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1
Frank, P	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fink, SS	4	1	2	4	0	0	HR, SAC
Sturm, 1B	5	0	1	0	0	0
Loomis, 2B	4	0	2	1	1	0	2B
Vogel, 3B	3	0	0	0	1	2
C. Milbrath, PH	0	0	0	0	1	0
Ma. Salazar, LF	3	1	1	0	0	0
Mx. Salazar, LF	2	0	0	0	0	1
Bisel, C	2	0	0	0	1	1	SAC
Vanderwerf, CF	3	1	1	0	1	1
	33	6	9	6	8	8
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Frank (W, 5-1)	9	6	0	0	1	5

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