Cardinals soar to fifth straight victory

MINSTER - The New Bremen Cardinals combined early offense and great defense with a solid pitching performance from Megan Broerman to defeat the Minster Wildcats 8-2 in Midwest Athletic Conference softball play on Thursday at Four Seasons Park.

New Bremen improves to 6-4 overall (2-0 MAC) with its fifth straight win while Minster falls to 4-5 (0-1 MAC).

The Cardinals had a balanced offensive attack as eight of the starting nine players scored a run and seven different Cardinals had hits with four driving in runs. Brittany Blaine had two hits, including a triple with two RBI while Timiri Sadler had three hits, including a triple and an RBI.

New Bremen used small ball to get on the scoreboard in the first inning. Blaine reached base on a throwing error and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Krysta Obringer before advancing to third on a wild pitch and scoring on an RBI single by Hadley Williams.

The Cardinals blew the game open in the second inning, sending eight batters to the plate and scoring four times. Jessie Rindler doubled down the leftfield line with one out and scored on a double by Blaine to make the score 2-0. With Obringer at the plate, Blaine scored the second run of the inning on a wild pitch. After a walk to Obringer, Williams beat out an infield hit, with Obringer taking third. Obringer scored the third run of the inning on another wild pitch. Williams scored the final run of the frame on an RBI single by Sadler to make the score 5-0.

New Bremen tacked on a single run in the third when Gina Griesdorn singled and stole second base before trotting home on a two-out RBI single by Blaine.

The Cardinals scored their final two runs in the fourth inning. Sadler started the rally with a booming triple to the gap in right-centerfield and scored when she beat the throw home on a ground ball to third off the bat of Broerman, who scored the second run of the inning on an RBI triple by Kristen Dahlinghaus.

"It was important that we came out and hit the ball today," said New Bremen's coach Craig Griesdorn. "We put the ball play, we hit the ball hard and we were able to find some holes. We hit the ball hard last night against Coldwater but we hit them right at people and tonight we were able to find some open spots. The important thing is that if you put the ball in play anything can happen."

The early offense supported a great pitching performance by Broerman. The junior right-hander allowed the Wildcats two runs on six hits in gaining the complete-game win. Broerman had great control as she walked just one batter and struck out six.

Broerman got great support from her mates defensively as they didn't commit an error. Third base man Krysta Obringer had a huge day as she recorded six assists and a put out.

"Megan did a great job pitching tonight, hitting her spots, kept them off balance," said coach Griesdorn. "We played great defense, we did not commit an error. If you can limit you errors that is big. This was a big rival game against a good young team and in a game like this you have to hit the ball, play good defense and get good pitching and we got all three of them tonight and were able to come away with our second league win."

Both teams are back in action tonight as New Bremen will travel to Allen East while Minster plays host to Jackson Center and Perry in a doubleheader.