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

Contributed by Bullheads' Media Rep, Bruce Jacobs

After a two and half week layoff due to storms, and Independence Day, the Searles Bullheads shook off a sluggish startand came back to defeat the New Hope Bandits 8-2 Saturday evening.

Starting pitcher Dave Fauth gave up a lead-off single to Bandits Doug Hartwig to begin the game. After a fly-out, three walks forced in one run. Shawn Harding followed with run producing single for a 2-0 lead. The stage was then set for the first of several defensive gems turned in by the Bullheads. Searles 3rd baseman Marc Max back-handed a hot-shot ground ball down the line which sent him well into foul territory beyond the bag at 3rd. He came back across the bag to force the second out , and threw a strike to first to nip the runner and end the Bandit's threat with a double play. Fauth then settled into a groove, and with the help of an errorless defense, breezed through five more innings allowing just 2 harmless singles and one walk.

Kyle messner closed out the game throwing a scoreless 7th inning.

The Searles offense answered the Bandits two-run first with a three-run first of their own, and took control of the game right away. John Giefer connected for a ome out single (the first of 5 hits in the game for Giefer, and 16 in the game for Searles) to begin the rally, and following a Scott Schaefer walk, Fauth, Mike Marquardt, and Brian Sieve each hit RBI singles. Two more runs crossed the plate in the second, and again Giefer, Fauth, Marquardt, and Sieve collected the run producing hits. Marquardt drove in Messner and Bruce Gieseke for another pair of Bullhead runs in the 5th making the score 7-2 and giving him a 4/4 - 4 RBI performance on the day. The final run came in the sixth as Max, Gieseke, and Giefer singled, and Schaefer walked to drive in the run.

Messner and Bruce Jacobs each made hit robbing catches in the outfield to squelch any New Hope rallies, and the game ended on a brilliant double play turned by Gieseke at 2nd as the base runner was barreling into him.

The win upped Searles' record to 5-1 (5-0 ion conference play). They travel to St. Peter Tuesday evening for a big conference showdown for 1st place in MSMABA division play.

New Hope .... 200-000-0 2/4/0
Searles ........ 320-021-X 8/16/0
Stoneking (L) and Deivig. S - Fauth (W), Messner (7) and Schaefer.
2B Fauth, Giefer.