Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm's Lucas Soos reaches first base during a nonconference baseball game against Mound Westonka Friday at Mueller Park.
NEW ULM — Mound Westonka left-hander Connor Esposito allowed just two hits through six innings in the Whitehawks' 5-3 win over New Ulm in a nonconference baseball game Friday afternoon at Mueller Park. He recorded eight strikeouts.
Blaine Olson dropped the mound against New Ulm (0-2). Olson pitched 4 1/3 innings and scored three runs. He allowed five hits and struck out two.
Colton Ackman pitched the final three innings, allowing two runs.
Jameson D'Amato and Isaiah Walker each had two hits for the Whitehawks (1 win, 1 loss).
The Eagles had hits from Lucas Soos and Parker Neubauer, both of whom had hits in the third inning.
“Our pitching staff gave us a chance to win.” Ulm's new manager Mike Anderson said: “I only had two hits in this game, but I faced another great left-hander. [Esposito] He threw with plenty of power, had a good breaking ball, controlled the zone, and kept us off balance. ”
The Eagles scored one run without a hit in the second and fourth innings, giving them a 2-0 lead over Mound Westonka.
Ethan Thompson led off by two points with a walk and stole second base. After a ground ball by Kyle Albrecht, he scored on an infield throwing error.
In the fourth inning, Albrecht calmed down the leadoff walk and ran to third base on Esposito's throwing error to first base, scoring a run. He scored on a safety squeeze by Zach Hubbard for a 2-0 lead.
But in the fifth inning, the Whitehawks were given three runs by Olson and the Eagles.
Consecutive singles by Cole Drill, Cole Munster Tiger, and D'Amato made it one out and the bases loaded.
Drill and the Munster Tigers scored on New Ulm's infield error. Bryce Tappen's bad hop single gave the Whitehawks a 3-2 lead.
“I had energy, but I made a mistake and got a flat tire.” Anderson said.
That should be enough for the southpaw Esposito to finish off New Ulm in order in the fifth and sixth rounds.
The White Hawks then added two runs on three singles in the top of the seventh inning, New Ulm's fourth error of the game.
Anderson said it's currently a learning process for everyone involved.
“My team is learning how I work, and I’m learning how they work.” He said. “These players are practicing hard.”
Anderson also said the team's strikeout numbers (30 in the first two games) are somewhat concerning.
“The first match was a bit of a mulligan. I played against two very high-level hands in Hutchinson.” He said. “They had 15 strikeouts against St. Peter. But we've got to do a better job of jumping on fastballs. And we've been doing a lot of batting practice as well. Right-handed pitchers throwing 75 mph. I want to play against pitchers.”
New Ulm plays at Waseca on Tuesday.
