The Chanhassen Red Birds decided to make their own brand of luck on Wednesday night and squeaked out a thriller against the Dakota-Rice-Scott league Champions from last year, beating the St. Patrick Irish, 9-8, on the clutch hitting of Kyle “The Body” Kemble.

With the scored tied at 8-8 in the bottom of the 8^th, with one out, Manager Nelson inserted Kyle Kemble as pinch hitter for Casey Malmgren.  Kyle delivered a liner just inside the third base line and beyond the reach of the Irish 3^rd baseman.  Kyle motored quickly and felt the left fielder was a little slow to get to the ball so his speedy legs delivered on his brain’s commitment to try for two.  He slid in safely under the attempted tag from the 2^nd baseman, but the ball quickly flew past the glove and into right field and then into foul territory. 

With cat-like quickness, Kemble popped to his feet and ran safely into third, just beating the throw from the right fielder to the third baseman.  Justin Kurth then delivered the GWRBI by launching a high fly to deep center field, and Kemble easily trotted across home plate for the eventual winning run.  Kemble now has hit safely in 7 straight games.

St. Patrick opened the scoring in the top of the first with a two run homer over the left field fence from RF Matt Ambroz.  They added two more in the 2^nd inning on a pair of doubles from 1B Seth Ambroz and 3b Matt Pexa.

The Red Birds got one run back in their half of the 2^nd when Jantscher walked, advanced to 2^nd on a WP by Irish Starter, Jake Malz, and then scored on Casey Malmgren’s single to left field.

In the bottom of the 3^rd inning, T.J. Gulden and his cousin, John Gulden drew walks to open the frame.  David Naughtin worked the count to 3-2 and was called out on a 3^rd strike that looked severely inside.  Justin Thompson then delivered a single to left that scored T.J with the Red Birds second run, and moved John to 3^rd.  John then scored on another wild pitch from Malz. And another wild pitch to Nate Swenson plated Justin for the 3^rd run of the inning to make the score 4-4.  Malz was relieved by Ken Johnson with a count of 2-2 to Nate.  Johnson then got Swenson on a comebacker to throw him out at first.

With two outs, Johnson then walked Jantscher, Malmgren and Justin Kurth to load the bases.  Jeff Pavlovich popped out softly to Colton Borwege at 2b to end the inning with the score tied at 4-4.

In the bottom of the 6^th inning, John Gulden opened with a single to left field.  Naughtin’s perfect sacrifice bunt moved John to second. Justin Thompson delivered a clutch single to right field to score John from second to give the Red Birds the lead at 5-4.  Nate Swenson then singled and Kurt Jantscher worked the count to full and then got a walk (his third of the game) to load the bases with one out.  Malmgren then lined a grounder to second baseman, who flipped to shortstop, and the throw to first looked to be late, but the ump called it a double play and the runner from third crossed the plate in vain. 

In the top of the 7^th, the visiting Irish got four runs two walks and two hits, and an error on a throw from SS Nate Swenson that would have held the scoring to just 1 run.  Kurt Jantscher relieved Kurth with two outs in the 7^th, and while LF Will Walsh was batting, Justin Thompson threw a strike to first baseman Justin Kurth to tag out Craig Boser for the 3^rd out.  Irish on top, 8-5.

After a hearty “take me out to the ball game” from the 105 fans present (at least 30 of which were Irish followers), Justin Kurth drew a walk to open the home half of the 7^th.  Pavlovich grounded to second and Kurth was out on a fielder’s choice at second.  T J Gulden then singled to left field and the speedster Pavlovich scored the 6^th red Bird run.  John Gulden stepped to the plate and the crowd began to build an enthusiastic rumble.  A wild pitch from the St. Patrick’s third pitcher, Dom Deluca, put T J at second with just one out, and the rumble began to build to a crescendo, which then erupted as John connected on a fastball that he sent high into the twilight and over the left field scoreboard for a two run homer that tied the score at 8.  The Red Birds had mounted their second comeback in the same game.  A strike out and a fly out ended the inning with the score tied at 8.

Jantscher returned to the mound for the 8^th inning and once again faced Will Walsh, who was batting when Thompson picked off the runner at first in the previous inning.  Jantscher was sharp as a tack in getting Walsh and Seth Ambroz on called third strikes.  With two outs, Bill Dunker grounded softly to T J Gulden at second for an easy 1-2-3 8^th inning.

That set the stage for the Kemble heroics in the bottom of the 8^th inning.  After Kyle scored, he was greeted by a cheering Red Bird team and the partisan fans.  But the game wasn’t yet over.

Jantscher then got a 1-2-3 ninth inning on a fly ball to center, and two infield grounders to get the victory for himself and the Red Birds.   This win completed a two game sweep by the Red Birds over the DRS competition, having beaten another DRS team – St. Benedict Saints – earlier in the year on the extra inning grand slam from John Gulden for an 8-4 win.

Kurth worked 6 and two-thirds innings to start the game.  Jantscher worked 2 and one-third innings of scoreless relief to get the win.

John Gulden registered 2-3 in 5 plate appearances with a single and the “Monster Homerun” (according to GM Terre Kemble) for two RBIs, two walks, and scored three times.  This guy eats up DRS ptiching!  Justin Thompson had three hits, two RBIs and scored once.  Justin Kurth had two hits and the GWRBI with the sacrifice fly in the 8^th.

Matt Ambroz was 2-3 with a homerun and 4 RBI’s for the Irish.  Irish manager, Monte Hennen, who came into the game with 401 wins in 20 years of town ball at St. Patrick, used a patchwork of pitchers starting with Jake Malz, then Ken Johnson, for 4 batters, Dom DeLuca for 4 and one-third innings, and turned it to Craig Boser in the 8^th.

Next Game – Belle Plaine Tigers, Thursday night at 7:30 PM at Storm Red Bird Stadium.  It’s Season Ticket Holder premium game AND KleinBank prize drawing night.  Be sure to get your KleinBank chance to win.

# # # #