MinnDak Millers atEau Claire Classic

Tuesday June 24, 2008

 The #13-rankedMinnDak Millers traveled to Eau Claire, Wisconsin this past weekend to competein the Eau Claire Classic, held at beautiful Carson Park.

 The Millersadvanced to the semifinals and finished with a 2-2 record on the weekend,moving to 4-3 on the season.

 MinnDak waswithout the majority of their pitching staff as they played without Ward Gosse,Rick Lang and Travis Price.

 

Saturday

#13 MinnDak Millers 10 The Stoneyard (Fox Cities, Wisc)3, 5 innings

MDM   151 30-10 132

Stone   00003-3     4 1

Gerald Muizelaar, John Tschida (4) and Bruno Motroni,Lamar Noriega (4)

Eric Abitog and Frank DeGroat

WP-Gerald Muizelaar (2-0)

LP-Eric Abitog

HR-Tony Kunka (1), Daryn Miller (1), Bruno Motroni (2),MinnDak

 Lucas Goring ledoff the game with a triple then scored on a throwing error on the same play togive MinnDak a 1-0 lead.

 The Millers sent11 batters to plate in the second and would score five runs for 6-0 lead.

 Tony Kunka ledoff the second with a homer. JasonWandler followed with a double. Twobatters later, Goring doubled.

 Gregg Cascaesdoubled to score Wandler and Bruno Motroni hit a three-run homer to close outthe second inning scoring.

 The third inningsaw Tommy Thompson lead off with a second and move to third on Goring's double.

 Two batterslater, Thompson scored on a Motroni ground out.

 MinnDak tacked onthree more runs in the fourth when Daryn Miller led off the inning with ahomer.

 Two batterslater, Kunka singled and was forced out at second on Wander's fielder'schoice. Thompson followed with a walkthen Goring doubled to score Wandler and Thompson.

 The Stoneyardwould score three runs in the bottom of the fifth but were unable to extend thegame any further.

Lucas Goring, 4-4, 3 2B, 3B, 2 R, 2 RBI

Gregg Cascaes, 1-2, 2B, R, RBI

Bruno Motroni, 1-3, HR, 4 RBI

Daryn Miller, 1-3, HR, RBI

Tony Kunka, 2-4, HR, R, RBI

Jason Wandler, 1-3, 2B, 2 R

Tommy Thompson, 1-2, 2 R

Gerald Muizelaar, 3 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 6 K, 0 BB

John Tschida, 2 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 H, 1 K, 0 BB

 

#1 The Farm Tavern (Madison, Wisc) 8 #13 MinnDak Millers1, 5 innings

MDM   000 01-1 4 3

Farm    025 01-8 71

Tim Macumber, John Tschida (3) and Bruno Motroni

Korrey Gareau and Pat Humphries

WP-Korrey Gareau

LP-Tim Macumber 0-1

HR-Colin Abbot, Rob Gray, The Farm

 The Millersclosed out pool play by dropping a game to the defending World Champions thatgave them the number two seed in Pool A.

 The Farm pushedtwo unearned runs across in the second, the followed with five in the third,highlighted by a Colin Abbott grand slam.

 Another MinnDakerror would lead to another run for The Farmers.

 MinnDak extendedthe game in the top half of the fifth as Tim Tweiten led off with a doublefollowed by a Gregg Cascaes single two batters later.

 In the bottom ofthe fifth, Rob Gray would end the game with a solo homer.

Gregg Cascaes, 1-3, RBI

Tim Tweiten, 1-2, 2B, R

Tim Macumber, 2.1 IP, 6 R, 4 ER, 4 H, 1 K, 2 BB

John Tschida, 2 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 K, 0 BB

 

#13 MinnDak Millers 10 Thomson Area Merchants (Thomson,Ill) 1, 5 innings

TAM     00001-1     5 0

MDM   405 1x-10 130

Greg Anderson, Chris Nash (3) and Scott Beal

Gerald Muizelaar and Bruno Motroni

WP-Gerald Muizelaar (3-0)

LP-Greg Anderson

HR-Roman Foore (1), Daryn Miller (2), Bruno Motroni (3),MinnDak; Aaron Davis, Thomson

 The Millersopened up Bracket Play Saturday evening with a victory over Thomson.

 Lucas Goring ledoff the home half of the first with a single, followed by a Gregg Cascaesdouble in which Goring was thrown out a third. Bruno Motroni followed with a two-run homer.

 Two batterslater, Daryn Miller doubled then scored on Roman Foore's home run.

 In the third, TimMacumber led off with a walk and Miller followed with a homer.

 A Foore singlewas followed by a Tony Kunka homer.

 John Tschidafollowed with a walk two batters later then scored on a Motroni single.

 The Millers addedone more run in the fourth when Nick Tweiten led off with a double and wouldlater score on Tschida's sacrifice fly.

Lucas Goring, 2-3

Gregg Cascaes, 1-2, 2B

Bruno Motroni, 2-3, HR, R, 3 RBI

Daryn Miller, 2-3, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI

Roman Foore, 2-2, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI

Nick Tweiten, 1-1, 2B, R

Tony Kunka, 2-2, R, 2 RBI

John Tschida, 0-1, R, RBI

Gerald Muizelaar, 5 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 7 K, 1 BB

 

Sunday

#8 Midwest Stampede/Albaugh (Elkhart, Iowa) 7 #13 MinnDakMillers 0, 6 innings

MW     101 203-7 81

MDM 000 000-0 8 0

Terry Luster and Ben Fjelland

Gerald Muizelaar and Bruno Motroni

WP-Terry Luster

LP-Gerald Muizelaar (3-1)

HR-Stacey McLean, Matt Owen, Stampede

 The Millersweekend came to a close in a game that saw them leave 9 runners on base, getthe lead off hitter on in four of the six innings played and have base runnerson every inning.

 After the Stampede jumped out to a 1-0 lead in thefirst, the Millers threatened in the home half.

 Lucas Goring hada bunt single and Gregg Cascaes followed with a slap single. Bruno Motroni's line drive loaded the baseswith no one out but MinnDak was unable to push a run across.

 After a StaceyMcLean solo homer in the third and a two-run shot by Matt Owen in the fourth,the Stampede led 4-0.

 Three more runsin the sixth put the lead at 7-0.

 In the bottomhalf of the sixth, the Millers would load the bases with one out before fallingshort.

Lucas Goring, 2-3

Gerald Muizelaar, 6 IP, 7 R, 7 ER, 8 H, 7 K, 7 BB

 

 The Millers wouldlike to thank Gerald Muizelaar for throwing with us for our first twotournaments of the year.

 A thank you alsogoes out to Stu Taylor and everyone associated with the Eau Claire Classic foran excellent tournament once again.

 The Millers wouldlike to extend the best of luck to the Cedric Lang, son of Miller pitcher RickLang, and the Team USA Junior Squad asthey continue play at the ISFs in The Yukon as well as Millers Daryn Miller andTravis Price and Team USA as they compete in the Tri-Nations Cup next weekend.

 The Millers areoff before returning to action at the Boys of Summer in Denmark, Wisconsin.

 

Brett Bresnahan

brett.bresnahan(at)gmail.com