New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

HANSKA---Hanska put a stop to the Cinderella aspirations of Essig by taking a 5-4 win here Friday night in Region 2C playoff semi-finals. The victory ensured Hanska of at least runner-up regional honors and a berth in the state amateur baseball playoffs.
After surviving several "at the brink of elimination" playoff situations in earlier games, Essig battled to a 4-4 tie until Landon Rathmann led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a home run. In the seventh, Essig had mounted a three-run rally to tie the game. In that inning Adam Prochniak's single reduced the lead to 4-2 . A bases loaded walk narrowed it to 4-2 when Kyle Helget's single drove in the tying run.

Kyle M. Fischer went the first seven for Essig and struck out nine in the process before giving up the home run to Rathamann. Gary Wilfahrt started for Hanska and gave up only three hits while striking out six in 6.1 innings. Kyle E. Fischer came on in the seventh to get the win.

An earlier report "just walked off" this page and was re-entered (note date differences) to insure Essig and Hanska historical records to include this game. the line score was added at that time as recapped from the Hanska press box score book.

Note: The first line score is a recapitulation from the press box score book. Batting and pitching highlights are courtesy of the Essig dugout book and may not equal the Hanska press box totals. Note the differences.
Essig .... 100 000 300 --- 4 - 5 - 4 - 8 (LOB) Per Essig "Dugout Book" 4 -10 - 1 Hanska dugout book unavailable
Hanska . 000 310 01x --- 5 - 6 - 4 - 4 ............................................ 5 -- 0 - 1
Kyle M. Fischer (Searles), Frank Forstner (Searles) (8) and Larry Haala; Gary Wilfahrt Jr. , Kyle E. Fischer (New Ulm) (7) and Chris Peters. W-Kyle E. Fischer. L-Kyle M. Fischer.
Pitchers .................. INN P R ER H K BB HP as scored in Essig "dugout" scorebook
Kyle M. Fischer ............ 7 - 5 - 3 - 7 - 2 - 2 - 0
Frank Forstner .............. 1 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 1 - 0 - 0
Gary Wilfahrt Jr. ......... 6.1 - 4 - 3 - 7 - 7 - 1 -1
Kyle E. Fische r........... 2.2 - 0 - 0 -3 - 1 - 1 - 0
Hitting Highlights (per Essig scorebook): Essig - Dusty Fleck 2-3 and RBI walk in 1st, Kyle M. Fischer 2-4, Terry Helget 1-4 with double, run and RBI walk in seventh; Adam Prochniak RBI single in seventh; Kyle Helget, RBI single in seveth. Hanska - Landon Rathmann single and HR, Christ Peters 2-3, Micade Thordson, RBI double in fourth; Dusty Wilfahrt, RBI single in fifth.