The Pierz Brewers beat the Clear Lake Lakers 5-1 on Sunday at Hellie Field in Pierz, moving into a 3-way tie for 2nd place in the Victory League C Standings with St. Wendel, the Brewers and Clear Lake now all owning 6-3 records. They stand 1/2 game behind front-running Randall, as the 1st place Cubs are 6-2.
Clear Lake opened the scoring in the top of the 3rd against Brewers starter Gunnar Wicklund with a 1-out double from Caleb Leintz and a 2-out rbi single from Matt Korte to make it 1-0.
Lakers starter Jackson Phillipp held the Brewers scoreless until the bottom of the 5th when Pierz loaded the bases on singles from Derek Dahmen and Stephen Nezerka and a walk to Nathan Solinger. Peter Schommer grounded to 1st where Blake Brown fielded the ball and threw home for a force out at the plate. Michael Nezerka then hit a ground ball to shortstop, forcing out Schommer, but in an attempt to complete a double play, the throw from 2nd sailed out of play as both Stephen Nezerka and Nathan Solinger scored to put the Brewers ahead 2-1 after 5 innings.
In the bottom of the 6th, Gunnar Wicklund led off with a double to right, followed by an rbi single from Ryan Stuckmayer to make it 3-1, with Stuckmayer advancing to 2nd on the throw home. With 1 out, Derek Dahmen singled to left, and when the ball got by left fielder John Brew for an error, Stuckmayer came home to score and make it 4-1 after 6 innings.
The Brewers made it 5-1 in the bottom of the 8th when Ryan Stuckmayer led off with a double, tagged up and went to 3rd on a fly out by Preston Veith, then scored on a Derek Dahmen sacrifice fly to make it 5-1 after 8 innings.
After Gunnar Wicklund went 7 innings for the Brewers, they turned the ball over to Peter Schommer to finish, and Schommer responded by retiring 6 of the 7 men he faced with 3 strikeouts, allowing only a 9th inning lead-off double to Blake Brown. Schommer finished the game with back-to-back strikeouts to close out the Brewers 5-1 win.
Clear Lake 1 7 4 – 1
Pierz Brewers 5 8 1 – 5
WP: Gunnar Wicklund 7.0 IP 1 run 6 hits 9k 0bb
Peter Schommer 2.0 IP 0 runs 1 hit 3k 0bb
LP: Jackson Phillipp 8.0 IP 5 runs 8 hits 6k 1bb 1hp
Brewers:
Michael Nezerka 0-4 rbi
Kaden Kruschek 1-4 sb
Gunnar Wicklund 2-4 2B
– Aiden Jones 0-0 run
Ryan Stuckmayer 2-4 2B, rbi, 2 runs
Preston Veith 0-4
Derek Dahmen 2-2 sac fly, hp, rbi
Stephen Nezerka 1-4 run
Nathan Solinger 0-2 bb, run
Peter Schommer 0-3
Lakers:
Owen Kolbinger 0-4
Caleb Leintz 1-4 2B, run
Cooper Kosiba 1-4
Matt Korte 2-4 rbi
– Jackson Phillipp
Blake Brown 2-4 2B
– Colby Hovdenes 0-0
Cade Simones 0-4
Quinten Dukowitz 1-4
Jordan Golombiecki 0-3
– Brett Knudsen 0-1
John Brew 0-2
– Matt Primus 0-1