| On a great day for baseball in St. Augusta Sunday the Express kept their hopes for a Region 10C berth alive as they shut out the Gussies 6-0 behind an awesome pitching performance from Justin Hill in round two of the Central Valley League playoffs. |
| The Express needed a quick start to dash any hopes the Gussies may have had at making this a ball game. That is exactly what they did in the first inning scoring three runs behind a two run blast from Scott Marquardt and a solo rocket shot from Mike Arnold. Both Scott and Mike had great days at the plate with Marquardt going 4-5, HR, 3 singles, two rbi and a run scored and Mike was 3-5, HR, 2B, 1B, and two rbi. |
| Three runs was all right hander Justin Hill (8-0) needed as he pitched his second complete game shutout in of the year, his second in his last three starts. He struck out three, walked zero and allowed only three hits on the day. The Gussies never figured him out. He had his no-hit bid broke up in the sixth inning as he gave up back to back singles with two outs. |
| Hill has pitched very well down the stretch, last week in the loss to Pearl Lake, Hill got the no decision and pitched very well in that game. The Express defense didn?t back him up as they committed four costly errors behind him and five for the game. Sunday was a different story as the defense was there and the offense came through with run support. |
| The Express added to the 3-0 lead in the sixth inning with Aaron Knaus reaching on a single, he advanced to second on a heads up play as Pat Arnold fouled out to the first baseman. As Gussies first baseman Dave Fritz made a spectacular feet first diving catch into the fence, Knaus tagged up from first as he noticed nobody covering second base. He scored one pitch later on a Nate Turck single. |
| Turck stole second and scored on a single by Brooks Marquardt to make it 5-0. Brooks was 3-5, three singles and a rbi. Kimball tallied one more run in the seventh inning when Jeremy Kuechle drew a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Mike Arnold double. The Express offense barraged Gussie pitching with 15 hits on the day. |
| The win sets up the Express in a show down with the Pearl Lake Lakers Wednesday night at 7:30 in Watkins. Pearl Lake lost to Eden Valley 4-2 last Sunday and will now face the Express in a do or die game to advance into the Region 10C playoffs. Probable starters for the game are Pat Arnold for the Express and Dale Kraemer for the Lakers. |
| Dassel |
| Friday night the Express were in exhibition action trying to stay sharp and get some at bats in for the Sunday playoff game against the Gussies. Kimball took it too a great Dassel ball club beating them 8-0. |
| Mike Arnold and Joe Pennertz led the Express offense with two hits a piece, both having big hits in the five run fifth inning. Pennertz drove in two runs with a single and Arnold kept the rally going belting a double off the left field wall. |
| Arnold was 2-5 on the night, 2 2B, 2R. Pennertz collected two hits, two runs scored and drove in two, going 2-5 as well. |
| Pat Arnold (8-0) started on the mound for the Express. He would go five innings as he got some work in for the first time in two weeks. Arnold struck out one, walked one and scattered seven hits. He was relieved by Joe Krippner in the sixth inning. Krippner went three innings giving up only one hit striking out four and walking one. Brian Marquardt came on in the ninth inning to finish it off for the Express. This was Brian?s second outing of the year. He would slam the door shut on the Saints after giving up a single to lead off the inning. |
| Rail Report |
| The two wins improve the Express record to 27-4 overall and 1-1 in the CVL North Playoffs. In the Central Valley South Division Playoffs Watkins has advanced to Region 10C play after winning in round one 6-2 over St. Nick and 3-1 over the Cold Spring Rockies in round two. Cold Spring and Luxemburg will battle it out on Wednesday night to see which team advances. Eden Valley has also qualified for region play as they beat Pearl Lake 4-2 Sunday. As mentioned earlier in the article the Express will play Wednesday night against Pearl Lake to see who advances to region action from the CVL North Division. |
| Express Stay Alive |
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