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Jeff Miller

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Pointers take two from Yellowjackets

Jeff Miller


The Yellowjacket baseball team continued their two-month road trip to start the season with arguably their toughest test of the season - a four-game set at UW-Stevens Point.  The Pointers were chosen to win the WIAC in the pre-season poll and entered the game ranked 12th in the nation according to d3baseball.com.

On Saturday, they rode a slugging offense and strong pitching to sweep, taking the Yellowjackets down twice by 13-5 and 11-2 scores.

Game 1
Stevens Point 13, Yellowjackets 5
Box Score

After the Yellowjackets went down in order in the first inning the Pointers blew the game open, posting four runs in the bottom half of the inning, a trend that has haunted Yellowjacket starter Nick Bursik (Woodbury, Minn./Stillwater) all season long. 

Ryan Schilter and Justin Jirschele had back-to-back singles with one out.  After Schilter stole third base Sean Gerber brought him home with a base hit and the Pointers were off and running.  Jirschele scored on a sacrifice fly and it was 2-0.  Max Middlestaedt and Casey Barnes followed with back-to-back doubles to stretch the lead to 4-0.

A Jirschele sacrifice fly in the bottom of the lead added a single run, making it 5-0.

The Yellowjackets broke through in the top of the third, scoring twice.  With one out, Joe Ahrens (Worthington, Minn./Worthington) reached on an error.  Casey Dittel (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury) and Tony Remund (Andover, Minn./Coon Rapids) followed with back-to-back singles, the latter scoring Ahrens to put the Yellowjackets on the board.  After Wyatt Soderquist (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) walked to load the bases Jeff Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn) reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Dittel and it was 5-2.

Bryan Clark led off the bottom of the third inning with a sharp single to left.  He later came around to score when Barnes tripled to right-center field, getting one run back for the Pointers.

The bottom of the fourth inning spelled the end of the day for Bursik, who was relieved by Graham Miller (Cumberland, Wis./Cumberland), but it was far from the end of the scoring parade for the Pointers.  Dan Douglas led off with a walk and was replaced by Schilter on a fielder's choice.  The next three hitters - Gerber, Clark and Middlestaedt walked (Gerber intentionally), scoring Schilter.  In the next at-bat a passed ball brought Gerber home and it was 8-2 after four.

The Yellowjackets got one back in the top of the fifth.  With one out Soderquist, who is enjoying a breakout sophomore season, tripled and came in to score on Miller's RBI single, to pull the Yellowjackets to within five at 8-3.

Stevens Point would hit double digits in the bottom of the sixth with two more runs.  Schilter reached base on an error, ending up on second to start the inning.  Jirschele followed with a double to score Schilter.  Jirschele moved up on a wild pitch and came in to score on Gerber's single and it was 10-3.

Dittel and Remund led off the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles and both moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Soderquist.  Miller followed with a base hit, scoring Dittel, to make the score 10-4.  Two hitters later Robbie Veith (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) singled, scoring Remund and the Yellowjackets were hanging around.

But the Pointer offense just continued to find gaps and score runs, scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh inning and adding a single run in the bottom of the eighth to make the final score 13-5.

Bursik got the start and pitched three innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits.  He took the loss, falling to 1-4 on the year.  Miller followed with 2 1/3 innings of relief, allowing four runs (one earned) on two hits.  He walked four and had a strikeout.  Kyle Gauger (Spooner, Wis./Spooner) pitched the final 2 2/3 innings giving up three earned runs on four hits to go along with a walk and a strikeout.

The Yellowjackets banged out 11 hits in the game, but only one was an extra base hit.  They were led by Miller who went 3-5 and drove in three.  Remund, Dittel and Soderquist all added two hits each.

The top seven hitters did all the damage for the Pointers, who had 13 hits.  The two-through-five hitters all had multiple hit games and accounted for nine hits total.  Gerber was 3-4 and scored three runs while driving in two.  Barnes went 3-5 and scored once while driving in two.

Brad Stroik got the win for the Pointers, improving to 2-0 on the year.  He pitched eight innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on nine hits.  He walked one and struck out five.

Game 2
Stevens Point 11, Yellowjackets 2
Box Score

The second game of the day featured more of the same, as the Pointers consistently put runners on and drove them home, scoring in every inning but the second and the fourth.  On the other side the Yellowjackets struggled to string anything together and the Pointers cruised to the Saturday sweep.

Just as they did in the first game, the Pointers jumped on the Yellowjackets early.  With one out Schilter singled and went to second on a wild pitch.  He would steal third and score on Jirschele's single to right, making it 1-0.  Jirschele went ot second on a wild pitch and he scored on Gerber's double.  Gerber then came around on Barnes' single to right and it was 3-0 after one.

The Pointers added single runs in the third and fifth innings to make it 5-0.

In the sixth they scored three more to put the game well out of reach.  Clay Giese and Bobby Gregorich had back-to-back bunt singles and they both scored when Douglas hit a long home run to left field, and just like that it was 8-0.

The Yellowjackets got on the board in the top of the seventh.  Veith and Tom Fairbanks (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) started the inning with back-to-back singles.  Fairbanks was erased on a double play, but Veith came around to score and it was 8-1.  After Remund and Dittel walked Remund punched an RBI-single to right field making it 8-2.

Stevens Point answered in the bottom of the inning, scoring twice.  A hit-by-pitch and a walk put two on, and a wild pitch put them both in scoring position.  Another walk loaded the bases and a fielder's choice off the bat of Middlestaedt brought one run across, and an error on the play scored a second, stretching the Pointer lead to 10-2.

A single run in the bottom of the eighth closed out the scoring in the 11-2 Pointer victory.

Remund, Veith and Fairbanks did most of the hitting for the Yellowjackets, with two hits apiece.  The trio accounted for six of the Yellowjackets' eight hits. 

Dan Genrich (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West) got the start for the Yellowjackets, going six innings and getting tagged with the loss to fall to 3-2 on the year.  Bobby Tyndall (Ashland, Wis./Ashland) pitched the final three innings.

The usual suspects did the damage for the Pointers in the second game.  Barnes went 4-5 and drove in two runs, while Schilter, Jirschele and Gerber all had multi-hit games for the second time on the day.

J.P. Feyereisen was the winning pitcher for the Pointers, allowing a run on five hits in just over five innings.  He walked one and struck out eight.

The Yellowjackets (12-11, 3-5 WIAC) will do it again on Sunday, April 15.  The doubleheader will get underway at 12:00 p.m.
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