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Tigers advance to Section 2A finals with big win

MANKATO — There might not be anyone swinging a hotter bat right now on the Springfield baseball team than Mason Rummel.

Rummel went 4 for 4 with three RBIs as the Tigers eliminated New Ulm Cathedral 11-3 in a Section 2A baseball elimination game at Mankato East.

The Tigers will now play BOLD at 5 p.m. on Thursday and the Tigers have to win twice in order to advance to the state tournament.

“My confidence level, I’m just going up there, it just looks like a basketball to me,” Rummel said.

Hunter Mathiowetz pitched five innings, struck out four and allowed three hits to get the win.

“That was huge, he was hitting his spots really well, he was working with all of his pitches and everything was clicking for him coming in,” Rummel said.

The Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the second after a grounder to short was misplayed, allowing Tori Helget and Dylan Batzlaff to score.

Rummel’s single scored Henry Scheitel to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers then had a big fifth inning, scoring four runs to go up 7-0. Decker Scheffler started the big inning with a two-run home run. Mitchell Leonard’s single scored Helget and the Tigers scored on a double steal to make it 7-0.

Cathedral took advantage of some miscues by the Tigers to score three runs. Mark Schommer tripled to score Alex Hillesheim and Schommer later scored on a sacrifice fly. Will Schabert grounded out to third to score Aaron Portner to cut the Springfield lead to 7-3.

But the Tigers scored three times in the bottom of the sixth, with Rummel picking up his fourth hit of the game on a two-run single to make it 10-3.

Decker Scheffler was 1 for 3 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored and Scheitel was 1 for 3 with two runs scored.

For Cathedral, Seidl was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

Mark Schommer pitched 5 2/3 innings and took the loss. He allowed 11 runs on nine hits and he struck out five.

The Greyhounds advanced to play Springfield after defeating Mankato Loyola 15-12 earlier in the day.

The first game began Tuesday night at Franklin Rogers Park but was called due to rain in the bottom of the third inning. Loyola scored four times off Portner in the first inning to take the early lead. Portner started the game but wasn’t able to continue into the second day because of the pitch count rule.

The Greyhounds scored twice in the second with Tony Geiger delivering an RBI single. Chris Knowles later scored on a delayed steal from third base to cut the deficit to 4-2.

Matt Helget drew a bases-loaded walk in the second inning to give the Crusaders a 5-2 lead, but the Greyhounds responded in the third with Josh Seidl’s two-run single to make it 5-4. Portner followed with a double and Seidl scored from first to tie the game and Knowles hit a sacrifice fly that scored another run to put Cathedral ahead 6-5 and Cathedral added another run to go ahead 7-5.

Hillesheim led off the fourth with a double and scored from second on a wild pitch to extend Cathedral’s lead.

Knowles later hit a three-run homer in the sixth as the Greyhounds piled on the runs.

Loyola scored twice in the sixth and the Greyhounds responded with a pair of runs in the seventh to go ahead 15-8, but Loyola scored four times in the bottom of the seventh before Schommer came in and got the final out.

Hillesheim scored three runs and Seidl had three RBIs. Knowles had a three-run homer and four RBIs total.

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