New Ulm wins East baseball tournament

By Chad Courrier
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO May 18, 2008 01:39 am

— There’s nothing like a six-run inning to cure what ails you.
New Ulm overcame five errors, two runners getting thrown out on the bases, and other lackadaisical plays early to defeat Hutchinson 9-6 in the championship game of the Mankato East baseball tournament Saturday at Franklin Rogers Park.
“This was by far our worst defensive game of the season,” coach Jay Backer said. “But this team has been down before, they don’t give up.”
Things didn’t look good early. Hutchinson scored in the first inning without a hit, then added two runs in the second, with the help of two errors. After another unearned run in the third, Backer ran to the mound, summoning his infielders.
“I just said we haven’t played this way all year, why now?” he said. “We had too many mental and physical errors. Our pitcher was pitching well, and we weren’t helping him.”
The Eagles got two runs back in the fourth on Garrett Fischer’s RBI single and an outfield error, but Hutchinson made it 5-2 with another unearned run in the fifth.
“We just tried not to get down,” pitcher Wade French said. “I made one of the errors, and I just tried to pick up the other guys in the dugout. Once we started hitting, we got in a better mood and we started playing better.”

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