Wildcats take down Cardinals

MINSTER - With some timely hitting and clutch pitching from starter Jack Heitbrink, Minster was able to dodge the raindrops and the New Bremen hitters for a 9-1 victory over the Cardinals Thursday at Hanover Street Park.

New Bremen hit the ball hard out of the gate and squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the second inning. Minster started a three-run third with a walk, a bunt and an error, and ended up grabbing the momentum for good.

"The way New Bremen swung the first two innings, I would have never thought the game would end up like this," Minster coach Mike Wiss said. "But just like (New Bremen) coach (Chad) Wells just said, 'It's baseball and weird things can happen.' "

A single by Grant Selby and three hard-hit outs to the outfield accounted for New Bremen's first at-bat.

Zach Bertke laced a one-out double to get the Cardinals started in the second. Patrick Wells followed with a single. Jarod Keller then fouled off three 3-2 pitches before drawing a walk to load the bases.

Heitbrink then zeroed in with a strikeout and then got lead-off hitter Mitchell Hays to fly out to right to end the threat.

New Bremen starter Ryan Bertke retired six of the first seven batters he faced - striking out four of them. But Minster soon came to life in the bottom of the third.

Ethan Lehmkuhl led off the inning by walking on four pitches. Mike Ketner laid down a sacrifice bunt in front of the mound that Bertke threw over the first baseman's head, putting runners on the corner.

Jack Olberding and Adam Ketner followed with run-scoring singles. Heitbrink drove in the third run of the inning, which ended with a 3-0 lead for the Wildcats.

"I was very pleased with that third inning," Wiss said. "I think we had three first-pitch swings for singles. That really made us believe that we can hit good pitching."

New Bremen never seemed to recover from the momentum swing in the third inning.

"We put some very good swings on balls. We just happened to hit it right at people. That's the game of baseball sometimes," Wells said. "The bottom of their order hurt us a lot tonight, and credit to them. We walked them a few times, made an error, mishandled a bunt - all things that we have to clean up and fix."

Minster broke open the game and a single by Mike Ketner loaded the bases with one out. Olberding then ripped a two-run double into the corner in right field. Ketner would end up scoring on a wild pitch to give the Wildcats a 6-0 lead.

The Cardinals averted a shutout with a run in the sixth.

Ryan Bertke coaxed a one-out walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored off a single by Aaron Vonderhaar.

Minster added three insurance runs in the sixth. Olberding collected his fourth RBI of the game with a fielder's choice while Adam Ketner executed a textbook suicide squeeze and Heitbrink drove in a run with an infield single.

Heitbrink got the win with six innings of work, scattering five hits and striking out three. Jacob Niemeyer pitched an inning of relief in the seventh.

With their third win in three days, the streaky Wildcats improved to 9-4 overall and 3-2 in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

"We went from 6-0 to 6-4, and now we've gone from 6-4 to 9-4," Wiss said. "I'm very pleased with how the week has gone. I think we've grown a little this week. We became young men."

Minster will be back in action Saturday at the Fort Loramie Invitational.

New Bremen saw its record slip to 9-4 overall and 3-2 in the MAC.

"The good thing about baseball is there's always another game," Wells said. "We'll be back at it tomorrow. This was a good game against a good team. But we're not going to think about it long. We just have to continue to work, get better and strive to be playing our best baseball at the end of the year."