Staff photo by Ari Selvey Brandon Schmitz of Sleepy Eye St. Marys arrives home safely during a big non-conference baseball win over Martin County West on Tuesday at Sleepy Eye Baseball Park. The Knights won 20-2 in five innings.
SLEEPY EYE – Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s scored eight runs twice in two different innings to come away with a 20-2 victory in five innings over Martin County West on Tuesday at Sleepy Eye Baseball Park.
The game was called after five innings due to the 10-run lead rule.
All 10 batters who recorded an at-base appearance scored for the Knights as the team saw a complete effort at the plate.
Brandon Schmitz got the win on the mound, striking out six of the 10 batters he faced in three innings, allowing one hit. At the plate, Mark Anderson went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs scored, while Merrick Mathiowetz went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. Jon Petermann was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, and Kam Kosak had two runs scored and three RBIs.
St. Mary’s improved to 10-3 on the season with the win.
“Any night we have Brandon or Mark on the mound, we have a chance to win,” St. Mary’s coach Bruce Woitas said. “Today was kind of the opposite of yesterday where Martin County West gave us a lot of free bases, just like we did with Springfield [Monday] night [in a loss]. When you achieve this, good things happen. It was good to get other guys to work a little on the mound today too. Overall, we’ve played well all year and hopefully we can continue to do that and see what happens come playoff time.”
Mary’s got the scoring started right away with an eight-run debut, with Petermann and Schmitz recording a stolen base, a run scored, a single and an RBI in the same inning. The scoring slowed over the next two innings, with Anderson and Mathiowetz coming home in the second and Schmitz and Talan Helget coming home in the third.
The Mavericks showed some fight in the fourth inning by getting two runs on two hits, but St. Mary’s put the game away with another eight-run inning in the fourth. The inning was highlighted by a two-run single by Petermann. Kessler Severson was able to end the game in the fifth with a pair of lineouts to second and a groundout to shortstop for the win.
St. Mary’s is now preparing for the final stretch of games before the playoffs begin. The Knights will play at Wabasso on Thursday before playing the final four games of the regular season next week.
“We have to pitch well and we can’t give up free bases” Woitas said. “We need to put the ball in play and hit the clutch. When these things happen, good things will happen. We have a very difficult stretch, at Wabasso on Thursday and then four games scheduled next week, so it will be a difficult stretch for us. But it will be a good schedule for the playoffs as well.”
