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New Ulm Legion Gold loses to Grand Rapids 3-0 in 10 before beating Waconia 4-3

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Legion Gold starting pitcher Cole Wellmann tosses a pitch during New Ulm’s Upper Midwest Classic loss to Grand Rapids on Friday at Johnson Park in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — New Ulm Legion Gold scored two runs in each of the first two innings and then used a stellar relief job from Andrew Peters as it edged Waconia 4-3 on Friday night at Mueller Park.

Kasey Kuck went into the fifth inning to get the win for Gold, to finish 2-1 in Pool A play. Kuck allowed all three runs. He scattered five hits and walked five while striking out three. Peters came in the fifth inning after Kuck had allowed a lead-off single and a base hit. Peters did not allow a hit and walked thee. But he was able to keep Waconia off of the board.

Dillon Whitaker took the loss for Waconia, now 1-1 in Pool A play. Waconia will play Grand Rapids on Saturday in its final Pool A game.

Brandon Mehlhop had two hits for New Ulm with Cole Wellmann driving in two runs with a first-inning home run.

A.J. Fredrich had two hits for Waconia.

For New Ulm Gold and coach Jeremy Drexler, the win was a big one especially after losing a marathon 10-inning game to Grand Rapids by a 3-0 score earlier in the day.

“We had that game with Grand Rapids earlier and could not get one clutch hit,” Drexler said. “But Kasey came out and threw well and Petey did a good job of closing the door. We were able to take advantage of some mistakes on their part [three errors and two unearned runs] early in the game.”

Waconia pushed across a run in the top of the first when Alex Logelin singled and stole second. He eventually came around to score on an A.J. Fredrich sacrifice fly.

But the lead did not last long as Gold used a bloop and a blast to take a 2-1 lead.

J.T, Hoffmann led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Mehlhop.

That brought the lefthanded hitting Wellmann to the plate. He would deposit a Whitaker offering over the fence in right field for a two-run home run and a 2-1 lead.

Gold then added two more runs — both unearned — in the second inning.

Kuck laced a one-out single to right and Peters followed by reaching on an infield error. Both runners advanced on a Jordan Fischer groundout. An error on a Hoffmann groundball allowed courtesy runner Cooper Forbrook to score. Mehlhop then made the error hurt even more with an RBI single.

“We put the ball in play,” Drexler said. “Good teams do not strike out a lot. We forced them to make plays and we were fortunate that they miscued on a couple.”

But Waconia slowly tried to get back into the game. It cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth when it scored an unearned run on two walks and an error.

In the fifth, Waconia sliced the lead to 4-3 and ended Kuck’s day on the mound.

Fredrich singled and Jake Hendricks walked to start off of the inning and force Drexler to bring in Peters.

Peters walked a batter to load the bases before a Rob Smith sacrifice fly pulled Waconia to within one run.

“Kasey kind of struggled in the first inning and then he settled in for an inning or two,” Drexler said. “Then he struggled again. His ball was moving and he had good stuff. But he did not have good control and I did not feel comfortable leaving him out there.”

After the sacrifice fly, Peters shut the door for Gold.

“He had a four-pitch walk to the first batter he faced but he did a nice job,” Drexler said.

Despite the win, Drexler does not know where or when Gold will play on Saturday..

Gold lost earlier 3-0 to Grand Rapids in 10 innings. Cole Wellmann went the first nine innings and did not allow a run while fanning three, Alex Lund took the loss allowing three runs in the 10th inning.

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