Chris Jagerson — Mankato Legion Post 11 manager Jamie Mulvihill considers New Ulm Gold the top team in the South Central Legion League, so it’s tough to let an opportunity to knock Golf off slip away.
Mankato put itself in a position to win by rallying for three runs in the bottom of the seventh Thursday, but two bunts and a key error helped Gold escape with a 10-5 victory in eight innings at Wolverton Field.
In the top of the eighth, Gold used a suicide squeeze play from Rodney Drexler to score Garrett Fischer from third and Kyle Fischer all the way from first on the catcher’s overthrow to first. The next batter was Luke Altmann, who also laid down a squeeze bunt to score Drexler.
“They reached down for a little extra and found it thankfully,” New Ulm Gold manager Doug Radloff said of his team. “We’ve got a pretty good hitting team and I think getting scored on woke them up.”
Altmann and Jack Langer would go on to score in the inning as well.
“Neither one of us gave up,” Mulvihill said. “But in the end we had some plays we weren’t necessarily ready for.”
Gold led 5-1 after four and a half innings before Post 11’s Noah Hobbs led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple and came in to score on Luke Weber’s base hit.
The score stayed the same until the bottom of the seventh, when Post 11 used a leadoff single from Steven Trudeau and a pair of errors to load the bases for J.J. Cattrysse, who delivered an RBI single to center field.
Two batters later, Brock Lloyd sent a two-out flyball to right-center field, where Jon Suess and Garrett Fischer each converged on the fly ball, but neither was able to catch it. The play was ruled an error and scored both Weber and Adam Trautman to send the game to extra innings.
“It’s nice to see we didn’t quit,” Mulvihill said. “We kept trying to fight and scrape up anything we got. Even in the last inning, we still tried to get them.”
Post 11 starting pitcher Tyler Kuch went six innings and allowed seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Cattrysse pitched the last two innings and took the loss.
New Ulm’s Aaron Lilleoden went the first six innings and allowed seven hits and no walks with one strikeout, but took a no decision. Taylor Rolloff went the last two innings to earn the win.
Post 11 (14-8) plays at 8 p.m. Monday against Worthington at Franklin Rogers Park, and New Ulm begins play in the Gopher Classic today in Minneapolis.
“We were trying to win (this game) but be conservative going into a tournament,” Radloff said. “We were fortunate enough to come out on the top end of this with the errors that we had. They wouldn’t go away, though.”
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Mankato Legion Post 11’s Adam Trautman swings and connects with the ball during one of his at-bats Thursday against New Ulm Gold at Wolverton Field. Sonja Reeves
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