Staff photo by Ali Selvay Madelia’s Tate Becker dives to first base as Cathedral’s Logan Mielke covers the bases during a nonconference baseball game Monday at Watna Park.
MADERIA — Some games can be decided by who can make the final play.
That was certainly the case in Monday’s nonconference baseball matchup between New Ulm and Madelia, with the Greyhounds winning 4-3 at Watna Park.
“Maderia is a really good baseball team.” Cathedral head coach Alan Wojtas said. “They had as good a chance as anybody to win the Section 2A tournament that starts on Thursday. They have some great pitchers and they played well. But some key plays — Logan Mielke hitting a two-strike double, fighting his way down the count and hitting the ball down the right field line to score two runs. And then Collin Anderson’s play to start the inning in the top of the seventh was really important. You have to play above-average baseball to win games like this.”
Mielke had a double and totaled three RBIs on the day, Caleb Forstner was 2-for-3 with two hits and two stolen bases, and Jake Finstad had three RBIs. Anderson won the game with two strikeouts in five innings, allowing four hits and three runs. Finstad made a good save with three strikeouts in two innings.
Tate Becker replaced Madelia with 10 strikeouts and allowed three earned runs on four hits and three walks. At the plate, Evan Coyle was 2-for-2 with 1 hit and 1 RBI, and Becker was 1-for-3 with 1 RBI.
Cathedral took the lead in the first inning when Finstad walked, stole second, advanced to third base on an error, and then brought home on Mielke’s ground ball. However, the lead did not last long as Anderson struck out four batters and scored two runners on Coyle’s single.
Anderson and the Greyhounds quickly recovered with two outs on Mielke’s double, and Finstad and Alex Portner scored in the third inning. In the bottom of the fourth inning, both teams scoreless, Becker scored on an error, tying the game. Cathedral scored again in the fifth inning when Finstad homered on an error, but Finstad and the Greyhound defense put together two perfect innings to end the game. This included a play in which Anderson, who had moved to shortstop, caught a ground ball that reached the shallow outfield and put Noel Davila out first.
Cathedral (16-4) and Madelia (13-5) both await playoff seeding in Thursday’s Section 2A tournament.
“Our pitchers are going to have to fight if we’re going to go deep.” Wojtas said. “We can’t give up free bases, so we don’t have any walks or hit by pitches.Next, we have to play good defense behind them.If we can play clean baseball during this period, we can eventually play in the game.” So it’s just a matter of finding a way to put some points together. I think we can do that, and a lot of teams can do that, so it’s going to be a fun section to be in.”
