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WINTHROTTLED AGAIN

Tigers Face Elimination at Home Tonight

--By Brett Kruschke

Last year, Winthrop entered the Carver Central League – White playoffs with a 4-18 record and the last seed in the five-team division. They promptly caught fire with the bats and rode it all the way to a storied State Tournament appearance, ending Tigertown’s season with a 10-3 whooping along the way.

This year, Winthrop entered the CCL-White playoffs with a 4-12 record and the fourth seed in what’s now a four-team division. It’s not supposed to work this way, but The Winthrop Lumber Company may be on their way again after pasting the Tigers 15-4 Monday night at Tiger Park, behind 18 hits.

#3 seed Arlington beat #2 seed Waconia as well—4-1 on Monday night—meaning El Tigre will have to win tonight and Friday to continue their season. Tonight Waconia visits Tiger Park at 7:30pm, with the loser eliminated. If the Tigers win this evening, they will play at the loser of tonight’s Winthrop at Arlington game on Friday, 7:30pm. (See playoff bracket or visit www.bptigertown.com for further details.) Saturday at 6:00pm is the CCL-White Championship, which would be played at Belle Plaine (as high seed) should they qualify.

Region 4C action begins Friday, August 6 th.

Last week the Tiger Train kept busy with games on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, beating St. Peter 11-4 and Delano 2-1, and losing to Chaska 5-3, respectively. BP ended the regular season with an 11-5 mark in league play, and currently stand at 13-9 overall.

BP 11 @ St. Peter 4 (Tuesday, July 20)

It was hot—really hot. Hot like sticking-to-the-vinyl-seat-of-the-family-station wagon-on-a-trip-from-Belle Plaine-to-British Columbia-in-midsummer-’83 hot. (Nooo eating in the car, kids!) Who better to battle the weather and to bat eighth than the svelte newlywed himself, Shane Hofmann.

Hofmann watched himself and the Tigers throw up one, five, and two runs in their first three at-bats to take a commanding 8-0 lead. A revolution at the plate, Hofmann ending up scoring three runs on the day with nary a hit. Pitching-wise, he went six innings, leaving after six with a 9-3 lead.

The Tigers lashed out only ten hits, but worked an eye-popping twelve walks. Jonny Schulz, whose batting average is hardly enough to buy a king-sized candy bar (91 cents), even persuaded three walks from the nine hole. Go Jonny, go.

The Tigertown Growlers added two more in the seventh to finish with eleven, and Dan Huber held the Saints to one run over the game’s final three innings to notch the save. Trace Selly, freshly unjinxed via this column, went 4-for-4 to snap his 14 at-bat hitless streak.

Delano 1 @ BP 2 (Wednesday, July 21)

With the Tiger bullpen due for their 3,000 mile playoff tune-up, the plan was to get three effective innings each from Dave Feldt, Mike Schultz, and Jonny Schulz, in that order, and to win in dramatic fashion on a single by Jake Creighton. Check, check, check, and check.

Feldt allowed Delano’s only run in the first, although it was unearned. Feldt was actually removed with a no-hitter, prompting him to call himself the “Wilson Alvarez of the Tigers.” Mike Schultz and Jonny Schulz planned their work and worked their plan, yielding three hits each over their three scoreless frames.

In the ninth, Pat Schultz and Pat Moriarty singled to set up a sacrifice by Jeff Witt. After Witt successfully bunted the Pats over, Creighton delivered the aforementioned single to left and this one was in the books. Way to go Jake, you studhorse!

Chaska 5 @ BP 3 (Thursday, July 22)

Okay, I wasn’t at this game. But you can tell a lot from a boxscore…

Zip Zellmann started and worked five effective frames, if not efficient. The left-hander walked five but also allowed just two hits, both of which came in the Traveling Gophers’ two-run third. Belle Plaine notched one in the fourth then took the lead with two in the fifth, on a call-your-shot (call every shot) two-run tater from Dan Huber.

Mike “Milk Carton” Murphy took over in the sixth and set down his first six before running into trouble in the eighth. Two walks, two errors, a hit, and a hit-batter resulted in a three-spot for the Cubs. A line-drive snag from Jake Creighton let the Tigers escape further damage.

The Chatfields mustered a ninth-inning rally, putting men on first and third with one out. But three-stick Trace Selly ground into a game ending double play, 6-4-3, and so it goes.

Winthrop 15 @ BP 4 (Monday, July 26 – CCL-White Playoffs)

Like any good horror flick, this one started with a serene lake setting – the Tigers actually taking a 1-0 lead into the third as Dan Huber’s leadoff double in the first led to a run. Two men were out and a runner on first, via error, when the random killing began: a Dan Anderson (i.e. Jason Vorhees) double, two singles and another error, a walk, and two more singles, all off camp counselor and Tiger ace Shane Hofmann. When the final head count was taken, six had scored—and all unearned.

After a leadoff single in the fourth, Hofmann was chased and gave way to Mike Murphy, who kept the Tigers in the game with three scoreless frames while the home bats continued to scuffle. In the sixth, Tigertown plated another, making it 7-2. But the seventh wound up being an equally bloody sequel, as the Eagles sent nine men to the plate for the second time, highlighted by a Vladimir Guerrero-esque three-run homer off his shoe-tops by Dan Anderson. The Winthrop three-hitter finished the night 4-for-5 with the homer, two doubles, and three runs scored. In all, five came home to roost in the Winthrop seventh.

Trailing 12-2, the Tigers scored twice and loaded the bases in the seventh with one out to possibly still make things interesting. However, a valiant at-bat by Pat Moriarty ended in a strikeout, and Jeff Witt flied out to deep centerfield, ending the threat.

For good measure, the Eagles added three more in the ninth off reliever Mike Schultz, batting another eight men. Illustrating what an aberration this game was to the Tiger pitching staff, they had allowed just 51 earned runs in 183 innings coming in (2.51 ERA), before surrendering nine earned (and fifteen overall) in this game.

Well deserving of mention by this point in the article is Winthrop pitcher Ben Melius, who went the distance, allowing just one walk. The Tigers totaled ten hits off the sidearmer, led by Pat Schultz’s 3-for-4 effort and Huber’s 2-for-5 (two doubles).

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This page was created and maintained by Nick Kornder, Sports Information Director at Northern State University. The views and ideas on this page are that of the author, and not those of Northern State University.