MANKATO — Mankato Post 11 American pitcher Britt Vaubel took a dream scenario into the fifth inning of Monday’s South Central Legion League game against heavily-favored New Ulm Gold.
Vaubel’s assortment of off-speed pitches had limited Gold to just three hits and one run before an infield error enabled New Ulm to tally four unearned runs and gain a 5-4 win at Wolverton Field.
“I thought we had a pretty good chance of winning it,” Vaubel said. “I feel we keep getting better, we just have to rid of the errors and walks. My arm was a little bit sore from working out but I still felt pretty good.
“I just tried to change speeds to get them off balance and get outs. They’re probably a fastball hitting team, and I am not that fast. I just tried to approach it like any other game and stay calm.”
Gold (17-1 overall, 4-1 in SCLL) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Zach Fischer singled, stole second base and scored on Brock Sieve’s base hit into left-center field.
American (5-10, 0-6) answered in the bottom of the inning behind back-to-back singles from Brandon Prange and Kyle Moret. Jimmy Vosburg’s sacrifice bunt moved the runner up before a wild pitch from Gold starter Zach Quiring and Adam Murray’s sacrifice fly made it 2-1.
New Ulm looked like it would waste a lead-off walk to Quinn O’Connor in the fifth frame, but an American miscue enabled a pair of two-run hits — Zach Ficher’s bouncer into right field and Garrett Fischer’s rocket over the left-center field fence — to give Gold a 5-2 lead.
“You can’t really ask for much more than that,” American coach Ben Smith said. “The kids really battled. It was just a few little things here and there. I liked the way we got our bunts down and executed the hit and run.
“These guys come from four different schools and it’s always an unknown how they’re going to react to each other, but we have good team chemistry.”
Post 11 sliced the deficit to 5-4 in the sixth inning as four straight hits — Prange, Moret, Vosburg and Murray — produced a pair of runs. Quiring, who struck out one and walked one while allowing nine hits, got two infield pop-ups to leave two runners stranded.
Tyler Swanson’s second hit of the contest gave American a two-out runner in the final frame, but Gold relief pitcher Kyle Fischer retired Prange on a fly ball to center field. Prange ended up with three hits while Moret and Murray chipped in two each.
“Obviously that wasn’t their ace pitcher but we had a close game with them,” Prange, a St. Clair native, said. “Nothing really changed with the new pitcher. He was a little faster so I was hoping I could hit it farther, but I just got under it too much.”
Vaubel allowed eight hits while striking out two, walking two and hitting a batter. He threw 105 pitches in going the distance.
American plays Mankato Post 11 National today in an 8 p.m. game at Wolverton and Gold begins play today against Oakdale in the Upper Midwest Classic.
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