Knights bounce back in big way over MCW

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Brandon Schmitz slides into home safely during a big nonconference baseball win over Martin County West on Tuesday at Sleepy Eye Baseball Park. The Knights won 20-2 in five innings.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s scored eight runs twice in two different innings to come away with a 20-2 win in five innings over Martin County West on Tuesday at Sleepy Eye Baseball Park.

The game was called after five innings due to the 10-run lead rule.

All 10 batters that recorded a plate appearance scored for the Knights as the team saw a well-rounded effort at the plate.

Brandon Schmitz got the win on the mound, striking out six of the 10 batters he faced in three innings while allowing one hit. At the plate, Mark Anderson was 3 for 3 with three RBIs and three runs scored, while Merrick Mathiowetz was 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. Jon Petermann was 2 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, and Kam Kosak had two runs scored and three RBIs.

St. Mary’s improved to 10-3 on the season with the win.

“Any night we have Brandon or Mark on the mound, we have a chance to win,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “Today was kind of opposite from yesterday, where Martin County West gave us a lot of free bases as we did to Springfield [Monday] night [in a loss]. When you get that, good things happen. It was good to get some other guys a little bit of work on the mound today as well. Overall we’ve been playing well all year and hopefully we can continue to do that and see what happens at playoff time.”

St. Mary’s started off the scoring right away with a eight-run first, with Petermann and Schmitz both recording a stolen base, a run scored, a single and an RBI in the same inning. The scoring slowed over the next two innings, with Anderson and Mathiowetz reaching home in the second and Schmitz and Talan Helget coming home in the third.

The Mavericks showed some fight in the fourth inning by getting two runs on two hits, but St. Mary’s capped the game off with another eight-run inning in the fourth. The inning was highlighted by a two-run single by Petermann. Kessler Severson was able to close out the game on the mound in the fifth with a pair of lineouts to second and a groundout to shortstop for the win.

St. Mary’s now prepares for a final stretch of games before playoffs begin. The Knights will play at Wabasso on Thursday before playing their final four regular season games next week.

“We have to pitch well and can’t give up free bases,” Woitas said. “We need to put the ball in play and get that clutch hit. When those things happen, good things will happen. We have a really tough stretch, at Wabasso Thursday and then four games on the schedule next week, so it will be a tough stretch for us. But it will be a good kind of schedule heading into playoffs as well.”