Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saints handle cold, Cardinals
 Saint Charles' Matt Putzier delivers a pitch as Lewiston-Altura's Aaron Phillips takes off to steal second base Monday during the Three Rivers Conference match-up in Lewiston. (Photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
LEWISTON, Minn. — It was cold. It was overcast. It was a little windy.
Despite those less than ideal conditions, the St. Charles High School baseball team pulled through.
The Saints upended Three Rivers Conference foe Lewiston-Altura 7-4 on Monday afternoon at Cardinal field.
“It was a cold day,” St. Charles coach Scott McCready said. “It’s nice to have a win over a solid team like (L-A).”
The Saints (4-3, 4-3) were able to pound out 13 hits and get to Cardinals starter Ben Buehler.
St. Charles scored two runs in three different innings.
“Buehler was a nice thrower and we were fortunate to score off him early,” McCready said. “You play a whole lot differently when you’re ahead by a couple runs.”
The strength for the Saints may have been their pitching and defense. They only allowed four hits to the Cardinals but walked eight hitters.
Starting pitcher Matt Putzier went 41/3 innings, giving up four earned runs, four hits, striking out seven and walking seven.
Matt Ellinghuysen came on in relief for Putzier and shut the door, going 22/3 innings, allowing no hits, striking out three and walking one.
“Matt Putzier pitched really well and Matt Ellinghuysen did a nice job coming in at the end,” McCready said. “I was real pleased with the way our kids competed and made more defensive plays.”
L-A (4-2, 4-2) had its chances, leaving the bases loaded in the second inning, having a runner thrown out at the plate to end the third and leaving runners on in the fifth and seventh. L-A also had trouble in the field, committing four errors.
“I didn’t think we executed very well offensively and defensively,” Cardinals coach Jerry Stensgard said. “We can’t give them extra outs like we did. We have to come out with a clutch hit and do the little things successfully in a close game like this.”
Ellinghuysen went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Ben Colvin went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored and Ryan Ihrke went 2-for-4 for St. Charles.
For the Cardinals, Buehler went five innings, allowed five runs, three earned runs, seven hits, struck out eight and walked two.
Also for L-A, Justin Kronebusch went 1-for-2 with two RBIs and Cyril Pyfferoen went 1-for-1 with a double, a walk and an RBI.
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