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Greyhounds battle back to beat Tigers

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield first baseman James Coffland attempts to catch New Ulm Cathedral’s Carter Haala in a pickoff during the Greyhounds’ home game with the Tigers on Monday at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral right-hander Sam Knowles shook off a shaky first inning and the Greyhounds’ offense responded with seven unanswered runs to win 7-4 over Springfield Monday at Mueller Park.

That win also secured the 2022 Tomahawk Conference baseball title for Cathedral.

Knowles allowed four runs on four hits to the Tigers in the first inning before not allowing a hit until the seventh inning.

He struck out two as Cathedral improved to a 14-2 overall mark and 11-2 in the conference.

Jakob Nachreiner took the loss for the Tigers (9-5, 9-3). He was charged with all seven runs.

He allowed nine hits and fanned seven.

Isaiah Rieser, Carter Haala and Jake Finstad each had two hits for the Greyhounds. Knowles had a triple and Haala had a double and two RBIs.

“We had a rough first inning, but Sam really settled in in the last six innings,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “He got the ball down in the zone (after the first inning) and was able to mix his pitches and we made plays behind him.”

The Tigers jumped all over Knowles in the first inning. Nachreiner led off with a walk and went to second on a Tate Mathiowetz sacrifice bunt. He came home on a Brendon Buerkle single, with Buerkle racing home later on a Luke Boyle triple. James Coffland’s RBI single and a Kyle Quesenberry single later gave Springfield a 4-0 lead.

Knowles said that his first inning was a case of him leaving fastballs and off-speed offerings up in the zone.

“But after that, I just located my pitches low,” he said. “They are a good hitting team and I left too many pitches over the plate.”

And after that first inning, Knowles held the Tigers in check.

And the Greyhounds were able to get to Nachreiner.

“He is a good pitcher, but we were able to put together some tough at-bats, made him work and took advantage of our opportunities to score runs,” Woitas said.

Cathedral began the comeback slowly with single runs in the first three innings. An infield error on a Knowles grounder scored a run in the first inning, with a Finstad RBI single adding a run in the second.

Knowles’ leadoff triple in the third inning and a Levi Franta groundout cut the lead to 4-3.

But the Greyhounds completed the comeback in the fifth inning.

Knowles was hit by a pitch and that sparked a four-run inning.

Franta followed with an infield single. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Nachreiner struck out Justin Berg, but the ball got by the catcher and allowed Berg to reach first. That also permitted Knowles to score from third with the game-tying run.

A Carter Haala two-run double on an 0-2 offering from Nachreiner gave Cathedral a 6-4 lead.

Haala came in on a Tom Finstad run-scoring single for a 7-4 lead.

“We had a number of different people contributing today,” Woitas said. “Jake Finstad had a couple of hits, Thomas Finstad had a big RBI single and Carter [Haala] had a big double that scored a couple of runs. We had a lot of guys get on base. This win was a complete team effort.”

The Greyhounds will host LCWM at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Mueller Park.

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