Chargers shut out Wolverines

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Connor Bode gets a hit during a nonconference baseball game against Sibley East Tuesday at Johnson Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Bradyn Kube held Sibley East to just four hits in 6 1/3 innings of work and the Chargers offense pushed across three runs in the fifth inning as MVL broke a three-game losing streak with a 4-0 shutout over the Wolverines Tuesday afternoon in a nonconference baseball game at Johnson Park.

Kube struck out eight Wolverine batters and set down 12 straight Wolverine hitters. He did not walk a batter.

Caden Willmsen took the loss for Sibley East (1-6). The left-hander went the distance and allowed eight hits while fanning four.

Three of those hits came in MVL’s three-run fifth inning.

Connor Bode had three of the eight hits for the Chargers who improved to 5-3 overall.

“He has been a horse for us this season,” MVL head coach Jim Buboltz said about Kube. “He is 3-0 and I loved how he mixed up his pitches today — he pounded the zone. But lets be honest — good defense behind him alway helps out.”

And Kube kept the Chagers ahead in the game as MVL could muster just one run through four innings off of the southpaw Willmsen.

That run came in the third inning and was aided by two Sibley East Wolverines errors.

Brennan Bendix led off with an infield single and took second on a passed ball. Kaden Peterspn followed with a base hit to right field. Bendix scored when the throw home sailed to the backstop for a 1-0 lead.

The Chargers, who travel to Sleepy Eye Thursday for a doubleheader with the St. Mary’s Knights, pushed three runs across in the fifth to break the game open.

Jensen Gerdts singled and Josh Carlovsky reached on an error.

Bendix was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

A Bode one-out single plated Gerdts. Zach Riederer’s opposite single to left scored Carlovsky before Bendix scored on a Josh Vander Plas groundout.

“We broke it open there,” Buboltz said. “But we had gotten guys on base earlier in the game but were not able to get them in, so it was nice to get the base runners moving. Connor had a big day with three hits and Zach put the ball where he needed to.”

MVL lost three base runners earler in the game — two on third because of baserunning mistakes.

“That gives us something to work on,” Buboltz said.

That lead held up as Kube — after allowing a one-out single in the third to his mound counterpart — retired 12 straight Sibley East batters before he hit Leyton Dose with one out in the top of the seventh.

Buboltz said that the win was big going into the doubleheader Thursday.

“You have to love the Tomahawk Conference,” Buboltz said. “There is competition all over and it will be a good battle against St. Mary’s. I like where our pitching is at. Bradyn ate up a lot of innings today so all of the rest of our guys are ready to go for the doubleheader.”