Cologne Pulls Through for the Win

It was a beautiful June night at arguably the Crow River Valley League's most beautiful ballpark. However, the game between the Hamburg Hawks and Cologne Hollanders was anything but. Cologne started out on top as the boys were able to capitalize early on Hamburg errors. Tanner Luebke started the game off by getting hit with a pitch and, go figure,  immediately stole second. Casey Clemensen filled in the empty spot at first when he saw the fourth ball and got walked. Carter Clemensen started his night with his first hit that drove in Tanner. Zack Nelson reached on a fielder's choice. Joey Lilya plated Casey with a fielder's choice. Alex Meeker extended the inning reaching on a error by the shortstop. Kyle Twait brought in the inning's fourth run by hitting a sacrifice fly to left field. Jon Kummer then finished off the inning's excitement with a single. After two quick outs in the top of the second, Cologne was still able to put together a mini rally to score two more runs. Carter Clemensen started it with a single and stole second, Zack Nelson picked up the RBI with a single and stole second, Joey Lilya walked, and Alex Meeker helped out his cause by bringing home Zack with an RBI single. The bats went quiet for the next three innings, while Hamburg was able to cut into the lead with one run in the third. In the bottom half of the fourth Hamburg was threatening, but starting pitcher Alex Meeker nailed down. With one run already scored in the inning and with two men on with one out, Meeker was able to roll one over for the Lilya-Casey-Kummer double-play. The Hawks scored three in the fifth after four walks and a single. The Hollanders went back to work in the sixth as Jon Kummer lead off with a single. Brandon Fritz gave himself up and pushed Kummer to second on a sacrifice bunt. Tanner Luebke singled and stole second. Casey was able to pick up the RBI by bringing in Kummer. Neither team put up any runs in the seventh. Cologne was set down in the top of the eighth, but Hamburg was able to score one on their side. With a one run lead going into the ninth the Hollanders extended after Carter started the frame with a single, Joey Lilya reached on an error, and then followed by Kyle Twait reachingg on an error that brought in Carter. Now the Hollanders had a two run lead going into that dreaded bottom of the ninth. Cologne's Achilles' heel this season has not been able to shut teams down in the late innings and that pesky heel caused problems again. After three walks, one HBP, no hits, and one error the Hawks tied 'er up and forced extra innings. Both teams were retired for the 10th. The top of the 11th saw Joey Lilya lead off with a sharp single down the thirdbase line. Austin Pysick moved Joey over with a sacrifice bunt. Then with two outs, Kummer came up clutch by hitting Cologne's only extra base hit with an RBI double to left-center. Even in the bottom of the eleventh that heel still wanted to give Cologne some problems. Hamburg was able to load the bases off of two walks and a hit batter with only one out. Carter Clemensen was able to strikeout the Hawk's three hitter and get the clean-up man to ground out to third. It was an ugly game, but the Hollanders were still able to get it done to pick up the win in 11 innings with a final score of 9-8. The night's hot stick was Carter Clemensen who tallied up five hits in his six plate appearances. Jon Kummer was seeing it well as he picked up three hits including the go-ahead double in the 11th, and Alex Meeker got two hits in his three plate appearances.Tanner Luebke, Casey Clemensen, Zack Nelson, and Joey Lilya all added one hit each to the game's totals. The Hollander's pitching list for the night was a long one, but it was Alex Meeker that started on the hill. He went 4-2/3 innings giving up five runs off of six hits, three walks while striking out three. When Meeker got into some trouble in the fifth, Alex Eichner came in and shut the door by picking up the third out of the inning. Alex Eichner, who had pitched seven innings just four days prior, was replaced with Joey Lilya the next inning. Joey went 1-2/3 and ran into some trouble in the eighth. Zack Nelson threw 1-1/3 innings after relieving Joey in the middle of the eighth, but ran into trouble himself in the bottom of the ninth. Carter Clemensen was called upon to throw in the middle of the ninth and went the rest of the game and picked up the win.

The next game will be Friday night as the Hollanders host the very tough Plato Blue Jays. After swiping both games from Plato last yaer, the Blue Jays are sure to be wanting some revenge. First pitch is scheduled for 7:30pm at Fritz Field. See y'all there!

Ga Hollanders!