Tigers hold off Giants in extra innings

By Denny Weller
Special to The Free Press

LE SUEUR Fri, May 16 2008

— It has been a year filled with hands-on learning experiences for the Belle Plaine baseball team.
Thursday at Bruce Frank Field, the pesky Tigers gained their first Minnesota River Conference victory by outlasting Le Sueur-Henderson 6-4 in eight innings.
“From the first day of practice, we had to teach these guys how to practice,” Belle Plaine coach David Kreft said. “There were so many of them not at the varsity level before. Now, it’s 12 games into the year. and we’re still going over different situations. ... We just haven’t had that quality practice time.”
Belle Plaine (3-9, 1-9 in MRC) took advantage of an error to score four runs in the top of the third inning. No. 9 hitter Calvin Gilster lined a one-out single up the middle before a miscue and Josh Wolf’s infield single loaded the bases.
Sophomore center fielder Travis Latzke then laced a two-run single into right field before winning pitcher Dylan Nyberg drove in a run with an infield out. The Tigers’ final run came when Giants right-hander Luke Fraundienst fired a wild pitch.
“It’s nice to be in ballgames at the end where you have the opportunity for a guy to step up and make a play,” Kreft said. “We’ve had games all year where we didn’t make those plays early in the game, and at the end you don’t have a chance to step up.”
Le Sueur-Henderson (8-5, 6-5) managed only a second-inning double from Dan Endres through three innings off Nyberg. It looked like Nyberg would extend the scoreless streak another frame, but a dropped fly ball enabled the Giants’ Jason Sunderman to dump a two-run single into shallow left field.

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