| Four out of five isn't bad |
| The Express made five stops throughout central Minnesota this past week and did alright, winning four out of five games to improve their record to 10-1 overall and 6-0 in the Central Valley League. |
| Alexandria - The Express started off the busy week in Alexandria taking on the Senators at Knute Nelson Field. The Express used a five run first inning and a five run seventh inning to beat the Senators 13-2 in seven innings. Scott Marquardt, who is off to a scorching start at the plate this year, was 2-4 with three rbi, including a triple, to lead the Express. Brian Marquardt and Joe Pennertz also collected two hits in the win. Pat Arnold (2-0) started and picked up the victory going five innings and striking out six. He allowed both Alexandria runs. Joe Krippner came in a pitched the sixth and seventh innings, striking out three. |
| Princeton - Wednesday night the Express made a stop in Princeton to take on an excellent ball club at Veterans Field. Princeton has made the past three straight Class C state tournaments and the past two years have lost out in the tournament to the eventual Class C state champ. In 2001 the Watkins Clippers and last year to Granite Falls. |
| In a close contest the Express managed an 8-6 victory as they had some ninth inning heroics. The game was scoreless going into the fifth inning when the Express exploded for five runs to take the 5-0 lead. The big hit of the inning coming off the bat of Mike Arnold as he connected on a two out pitch to drive in two Express runners. Kimball added one more run in the sixth. |
| Down 6-0, Princeton managed one run in the seventh inning. In the eighth inning however, the Panthers came back big time taking advantage of four straight walks. Joe Krippner came on in relief of Kris Hagen who pitched seven strong innings. Joe just didn?t have it on this night. Krippner has logged many innings for the Express so far this season and it caught up with him Wednesday night. The Panthers scored five runs in the inning knotting the score at 6-6. Four runs were charged to Krippner and one run to Brooks Marquardt who came on in relief of Krippner in the inning. In the top of the ninth Scott Marquardt blasted a two runner jobber over the left centerfield fence to make the score 8-6. Brooks Marquardt stayed on the mound for the ninth and slammed the door shut to pick up the win. |
| Watkins - On a gorgeous night for baseball, the Express made the short trek to Watkins to battle it out with the Clippers in a Central Valley League stand off. Watkins has had Kimball?s number the past few years as Kimball has not found a way to beat the savvy veterans. On this night the Kimball team put together a few hits and played solid defensively to steal one from the Clippers on their home field. |
| Justin Hill (3-0) started on the mound for the Express. He went seven solid innings allowing only five hits. He did give up all five Clipper runs, but the Watkins team never really seemed to figure Hill out. |
| Offensively the Express were led once again by catcher Scott Marquardt going 3-6 with 4 rbi. Brooks Marquardt, Mike Arnold and Nate Turck collected three hits a piece as well to aid in the winning effort. Kimball scored 10 runs but still left 14 runners stranded on base. |
| New Ulm - The Express showed up at Johnson Park in New Ulm Friday night with wind, light rain and cool temperatures being the theme as the Express dropped an extra inning contest to the New Ulm Brewers 4-3. Kimball rallied back from a 2-0 deficit in the fourth inning on a Justin Hill double driving in Mike Arnold and a Tom Marquardt ground out to score Aaron Knaus. Kimball took the lead in the seventh inning on a single by Mike Arnold scoring Scott Marquardt. New Ulm came back in the bottom of the inning to tie it up at three a piece. It stayed that way until the eleventh inning. Kimball mounted a threat in the top of the inning but couldn?t get a run across, in the bottom half of the inning the Brewers took advantage of three walks by reliever Brian Marquardt and scored the game winning run on a single by Jamie Hoffman. Brooks Marquardt started and get the no decision. Brian Marquardt (0-1) who was making his first appearance on the mound for the Express takes the hard luck loss. |
| St. Nicholas - Sunday the Express were back in CVL action as they traveled to St. Nicholas to take on the Nicks. Even though the game was played in St. Nick the Express were the home team on the scoreboard being it was a scheduled home game for Kimball and the Kimball diamond is unplayable due to the renovations. |
| The Express won 12-4 and with this victory take the season series with the Nicks. Kimball started Pat Arnold (3-0)who went seven innings picking up his third win of the season. Scott Marquardt continued his hot hitting going 4-5 with two doubles to lead the Express offense again. Jeremy Kuechle had a day at the plate going 3-5 with a double, he hit the ball hard in every at bat. Mike Arnold was 1-1 with a solo homerun in the third inning. Kimball scored four runs in the second inning, four runs in the eighth inning and scattered four runs in between. |
| News & Notes |
| The Express have another busy week as they play five games in six days again. Tuesday night in Watkins making up a game that was do be played on Mothers Day versus Pearl Lake, Wednesday evening in Cold Spring against one of the best teams in the state, the Class B legend Cold Spring Springers. Friday night the Express invade Delano to take on the Athletics, Saturday afternoon they will be back in Cold Spring taking on the other Cold Spring team the Rockies, as they clash in CVL action and on Sunday they end up in Luxemburg to play the Brewers. Come on out to the ballpark to watch and exciting brand of baseball. All the ball parks on the schedule for this week are beautiful and have a great baseball atmosphere. |