Sadler comes up clutch for Cardinals in seventh inning

NEW BREMEN - Trailing by one run in the bottom of the seventh, New Bremen needed a big play to start a comeback attempt against Coldwater.

Timri Sadler ended up being the spark for the Cardinals.

The New Bremen junior hit a two-out single to score the tying run, then worked her way around the bases during the at-bat of Megan Broerman and scored on a wild pitch to give the Cardinals a 5-4 win over the Cavaliers in a rescheduled Midwest Athletic Conference game.

New Bremen moves over .500 on the season at 5-4 (1-0 MAC) while the Cavaliers drop to 5-3 (0-1 MAC).

The Cardinals lost a 2-1 lead in the third inning and trailed 4-2 going into the bottom of the sixth before the seventh-inning rally.

Down 4-3 in the seventh, Cavaliers' pitcher Amanda Post got things started right for her team by inducing Brittani Blaine to ground out. New Bremen's Krysta Obringer followed with a single and stole second base before advancing to third base on Hadley Williams' ground out.

Sadler stepped in and ran the count to 2-1 before blooping a single just into the short grass of the outfield, allowing Obringer to score the tying run.

Broerman, who shut down Coldwater since the fourth inning, stepped into the batter's box next for the Cardinals.

New Bremen's coach Craig Griesdorn tried a hit-and-run, and although the hit never came, Sadler was able to advance all the way to third base after the throw to second was wide and into the outfield grass.

One pitch later, Post uncorked her only wild pitch of the day. Cavaliers' Catcher Sarah Wenning hustled after the wild pitch as Sadler came charging home. Wenning made a good play to get the ball to Post, who covered home plate, but Sadler slid under the tag for the game-winning run.

"(Sadler) came up with a big two-out hit. All you hope to do is put the ball into play and hope you find it," said Griesdorn. "I thought we hit the ball hard all game, but hit it right at them. (Coldwater) made some good defensive plays.

"Then we tried to go with a little hit-and-run. Ball got through and (Sadler) hustled to third. ... They haven't thrown a wild pitch all game. Just luck seemed to be with us at that point. Give our kids credit. Their heads were in it, focused. A well played game by both teams, I thought."

"We keep preaching to the girls that we have to do the little things," said Coldwater's coach Ken Fisher. "The three errors that we had led to three runs. We can't do that. We can't give extra outs to teams. I'm not faulting any of the girls, errors are going to happen in games. We just have to try and play clean ball and play the best that we can."

Obringer, Williams and Jessie Rindler each had two hits for New Bremen while Shannon Stucke had two hits for Coldwater.

Both teams are in conference action today. New Bremen makes the short trek on Route 66 to face Minster while Coldwater returns to Lady Cav Diamond to host Parkway.