Baseball: Wingers take advantage of many miscues

It was another walk-off win for Red Wing, but this was of a different variety.

The eighth-ranked Wingers took advantage of eight errors Tuesday by Holy Angels on their way to a 10-0, five-inning victory in Red Wing. Preston Blaney drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning to score the final run.

The poor fielding reached its nadir in the third inning when the Stars made three consecutive errors after Wingers senior first baseman Jack Strusz hit a pop up in front of home plate with the bases loaded. Holy Angels dropped the pop fly and made two throwing errors, which allowed three runs to score to give Red Wing a 5-0 lead. Strusz, who reached base three times on errors, scored later on another error to make it 6-0.

Only three runs the Wingers (15-1, 12-1 Missota) scored were earned. Freshman Ty Buck went 2-for-3 with two RBI in his first start in the field. Buck started at shortstop, hit fifth in the order, and scored a run in the third inning. Buck got the start because starting second baseman Karsten Lampman sat out with a wrist injury and Joel Newman started at second base.

“I think we even started out a little slow and sloppy,” Red Wing head coach Jim Bohmbach said. “I think we seemed to pick up a little bit and they seemed to stay down and boot the ball around a little bit. Good teams have to take advantage of those mistakes and I think we did a really good job of that.”

Wingers junior center fielder Ryan Boldt went 3-for-3 with a walk, two runs and two RBI. Red Wing senior catcher David Goggin went 2-for-4 with a run and a double.

“We put the ball in play and you have to put pressure on the defense,” Boldt said. “Sometimes they just boot the ball.”

With three regular season games remaining, Bohmbach has emphasized the importance of a quick start recently because the team has started slow and Tuesday’s game proved no different. The Wingers stranded Boldt at third base and starter Zach Garner worked out of an early jam.

“We’ve got to come out of the gates a little bit faster, a little more competitive, a little more hungry than we have been in the past,” Bohmbach said. “It seems to work, we’ve been winning so you can’t complain too much.”

The first three Stars hitters reached base, but Goggin threw out the lead runner on second base. Holy Angels put runners on first and second with one out after an error but Garner got a fly ball to center and a strikeout to end the inning. The Stars (7-9, 5-8 Missota) had three base runners in the next three innings as Garner settled down.

Garner allowed two hits in four innings, walked three and struck out two to pick up the win.

Red Wing will face Farmington Thursday in Farmington.

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