Just enough

NEW BREMEN - After the Minster baseball team took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, New Bremen's pitchers bore down.

Seniors Mitchell Hays and Ben Blickle combined to hold Minster to three hits and the Cardinals got enough offense on the way to a 4-1 Midwest Athletic Conference win on a windy Thursday in New Bremen.

"(Hays) threw the ball very well," Minster coach Mike Wiss said. "I wasn't disappointed in how (Wildcats starter) Eric Schmidt threw the ball. You only get one or two balls up in a game like this when the wind's blowing in."

Working with an early lead, Eric Schmidt held the Cardinals in check through the first three innings, striking out five and allowing just one hit, a double into the left-field corner by Hays. Hays went to third on a groundout but made it no further, as Ben Blickle hit a fly ball to right that was caught just inside the foul line.

But the trouble started for Minster in the fourth, when Sam Sailer was hit by a pitch and Nick Alig reached on an error. Colton Muether bunted them into scoring position and catcher Vince Hulse hit a single to right to bring one run home for a tie game. With one out and two on, Schmidt got a strikeout and a flyout to escape without further damage.

"I'm pleased with our pitching," Wiss said. "We made a couple mistakes in the field, and I don't want to go with the fact that it's early or anything like that. Those are plays that you just need to make, those are routine plays, and you're not going to win games if you don't make those plays."

The Cardinals kept the parade of baserunners going in the fifth. Leading off, Hays was hit by a pitch to get on base, and an error and a walk moved him back to third with no outs as Schmidt came out. Justin Nixon took over for the Wildcats and got a force out at home, then a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.

In the sixth, another error and hit batsman set up second baseman Kyle Tenkman, who singled into right-center. The ball was bobbled and both runs came home.

Meanwhile, Minster couldn't get any offense going. After scoring in the first and stranding two, the Wildcats only got a leadoff single from Schmidt in the third and a walk in the sixth, striking out 11 times for the game.

"Did we hit the ball hard a couple times? I think we did," Wiss said. "Right now, we score early and we're not getting anything late. That's been us the last couple of games."

Hays got the win for New Bremen (4-2) with 5 ⅔ innings of two-hit ball, allowing a run in the top of the first before settling in and mowing down the Wildcats. He allowed just one more baserunner before exiting abruptly in the sixth.

"He said he felt a little tweak in his elbow, so he took himself out," Wells said. "I kind of had to figure out what was going on there for a moment."

Trailing by three, the Wildcats had a last-gasp chance in the top of the seventh. Brady Heitkamp worked a leadoff walk and Luke Ripploh hit a double to put two runners in scoring position. Cardinals pitcher Ben Blickle, who relieved Hays in the sixth, got two outs before walking Schmidt to load the bases.

With the tying run at first and the go-ahead run at the plate, Blickle struck out Adam Ketner on three pitches to end the game.

"It got a little hairy there at the end, but he's a senior and he came through," New Bremen coach Chad Wells said.

Both teams are back in action today. New Bremen travels to Fort Loramie and Minster plays host to Lima Central Catholic.