Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad safely slides into third base during a closed-door baseball game against Mankato Loyola on Tuesday at Mueller Park in New Ulm.
NEW ULTM — In a nonconference baseball game Tuesday at Mueller Park, New Ulm Cathedral scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Greyhounds right-hander Jake Finstad saved the day from a seventh-inning dilemma, and Cathedral Defeated Mankato Loyola 7-5.
Levi Franta got the win for Cathedral, making it 12-3. He pitched six innings, giving up five runs on six hits and two walks, with four strikeouts. Finstad made the save, allowing two hits while retiring the remaining three batters.
Jackson Hara carried the weight of the loss for the Crusaders, who lost 8 wins and 4 losses.
For Cathedral, Elliott Chabert had two hits and Colin Anderson had two RBIs.
Christian Theuninck and Cam Vogel each had two hits for Loyola.
Greyhounds head coach Alan Woitas said a rare bad first inning by his team was canceled out by his team’s comeback.
“It certainly wasn’t the best first inning.” Wojtas said. “And Loyola took advantage of our mistake.”
The Crusaders put up three runs in the first inning on a walk by TJ O’Malley and a single by Theuninck. An infield error loaded the bases, and then a wild pitch made the score 1-0.
A ground ball and an infield hit increased the Crusaders’ lead to 3-0.
Loyola took the lead in the third inning with a walk by Eddie Engen and eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
But the Greyhounds, who have a tough game against the Tomahawk Conference in Springfield on Thursday, started a comeback with a one-out infield hit by Finstad in the home half of the third inning. He advanced to third base on Franta’s single and scored on a balk.
The Crusaders increased their lead to 5-1 in the top of the fourth inning, but the Greyhounds scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth with two outs.
Chabert was hit by a pitch before Joey Schugel singled to center field.
Alex Portner walked and the bases were loaded.
Finstad added one run after being hit by a pitch, and Colin Anderson’s single cut the lead to 5-4.
“My friends never left me.” Wojtas said. “We continued to fight at the plate and put a lot of balls into play. And Levi did a really good job from the third to the sixth inning and settled in.”
Cathedral took advantage of that and tied the game at one run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Brock Wellman hit a single and Chabert, with two outs, tied the game with a double knot.
Cathedral then scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, leading off the first run due to confusion by the Crusaders’ pitchers.
Finstad led off with a walk and stole the base for the second run. That’s when the chaos started from Harla.
“That was a bit of a goofy game there.” Wojtas said. “he [Haala] probably hesitated [on Finstad’s steal of second] And they didn’t call it that. ”
But when Harla threw the ball toward second base, the ball flew into center field and Finstad ran it home for a 6-5 lead.
“Jake was smart enough to just keep going.” Wojtas added. “Keep running until I tell him to stop. So we took advantage of their mistakes. That’s what good teams do.”
Franta was hit by a pitch and then scored on Caleb Forstner’s single.
Loyola threatened in the top of the seventh inning with Vogel leading off with a double off Finstad. Finstad appeared in the top of this inning.
Engen’s single left the Crusaders with no outs on first and third base.
But Finstad struck out the next two batters and finally ended the game with a lazy fly to himself.
“They took two good swings early and were ready to attack. But then he struck out the next two and then got hit with a pop-up.” Wojtas said. “He’s a guy who never backs down from a challenge. He’s the kind of player you want in late-game situations.”
