BIRD ISLAND - No. 3-seed Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s dropped the 2013 Class A champions BOLD Warriors into the losers’ bracket of the Section 2A tournament with an impressive 4-1 victory on an 80-degree Tuesday late afternoon.
The Warriors now must go 6-0 in the section to return to state. Thursday, they will host 5- seed Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity at 5 p.m. No. 1 New Ulm Cathedral rocked LPHT 10-0.
The Knights were flawless in the field and at the plate, where they were 3-for-3 on sac bunts. Junior righthander David Surprenant was touched for a first-inning RBI double to the centerfield fence by Riley Kramer but he allowed little after that until the seventh inning.
Ben Steffel doubled leading off, Tyler Lothert singled and Max Buchtel was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
But Surprenant got pinch hitter Austin Weis swinging and leadoff Trent Athmann looking before Lane Stadther bounced out to Ben Helget at shortstop.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Knights’ victory avenged a 6-0 loss to BOLD in the sub-section final, a Kramer no-hitter. Kramer was at first-base for this game. He’s been unavailable for mound duty after shoulder surgery in October for a football injury.
Both pitchers threw a five-hitter. Losing pitcher Trevor Nissen walked five and fanned four and hit Mike Hirsch three of his four at bats.
Surprenant walked two, hit one and fanned 13 mixing a good fastball and fine curve. Helget doubled twice and made a diving stop behind second base to throw out the batter in the fourth.
Coach Brian Kingery said he will start Warriors’ ace Logan Sandgren on Thursday. The winner advances to Mankato on Saturday.
S.E. St. Mary’s 4, BOLD 1
SE St. Mary’s 003 000 1- 4 5 0
BOLD 100 000 0 -1 5 2
HITTING – SESM: David Surprenant 1-for-3, 2 runs; Brandon Helget 2-for-3, 2 2bs; Jon Kopacek 1-for-3, 2 rbi; Mike Hirsch 1-for-1 … BOLD: Lane Stadther 1-for-4, Tyler Lothert 2-for-3, 2b; Ben Steffel 1-for-3, 2b; Riley Kramer 1-for-3, rbi, 2b; Trent Athmann 0-for-2, run, 2 bb’s
ADVERTISEMENT
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) - SESM: David Surprenant (W) 7-5-1-1-2-13 … BOLD: Trevor Nissen (L) 6.2-5-4-4-5-4, Brett Grund 0.1-0-0-0-0-0
