Yde's 2-hitter stymies Cards
With Willmar on the schedule twice this week, sandwiched around a game against St. Cloud Apollo, this is the most significant week of the Central Lakes Conference baseball season for the Brainerd Warriors.
The Warriors and Willmar entered Tuesday's game 8-1 in conference play. So Brainerd dispatched its ace, Matt Yde, to the mound against the Cardinals and the senior right-hander responded with a 2-hit gem in a 10-3 win at Adamson Field.
Brainerd hosts Apollo at 5 p.m. Thursday before traveling to Willmar for another matchup with the Cardinals Friday. Apollo is 11-0 in conference play, 12-1 overall, after drilling Rocori 17-2 Tuesday.
"It's probably one of the biggest weeks when it comes to conference play and to ranked teams," Yde said.
Yde kept his composure Tuesday as he withstood four errors that resulted in all three Willmar runs being unearned. He walked four and struck out four and snapped a sharp curveball consistently over the plate, frequently for called strikes.
"It was breaking real good," Yde said of his curveball. "The umpire was calling them over the plate. It's hard to judge curves when you're hitting because if it curves over it's almost too late to react to it."
Willmar's only hits were a second-inning double by Carey Jeremiason and a fourth-inning single by Anderson.
"He was busting it pretty good," Willmar coach Mark Stier said of Yde's curveball. "We had trouble with that, plus we let the first-strike fastball go. That's a credit to him. He threw a good game. We had chances with guys on a couple times.
"We're kind of mad about (the loss) but life goes on. Maybe a loss will teach us something. There's not a good time for a loss but it's not like Brainerd is a slouch team. The conference is tough and Brainerd is right up there."
The Warriors were tough at the plate, smacking 11 hits off Willmar starter Ryan Anderson and reliever Travis Jones. Kyle Berg and Nick Weiland each had two hits for Brainerd.
"I thought we did a good job of getting quality at bats," Warriors coach Lowell Scearcy said. "That's when we get everything we can out of an at bat. According to our charts about 90 percent of the time we were correct on balls and strikes. That's always what we're looking for."
The Warriors furnished Yde with a 5-0 lead after three innings. Third baseman Eric Bolt flared a run-scoring single to center in the second for the Warriors' first run. A 4-run Brainerd third included a double by Nathan Thomas and RBI singles by Kevin Ericson, Ty Adams and Rob Lien.
Willmar scored three unearned runs in the top of the fourth to climb within 5-3. The Warriors pulled away with three runs in the fourth and two in the sixth. Weiland had a 2-run single in the fourth and Adams an RBI groundout in the sixth.
WILLMAR BRAINERD
ab r h bi ab r h bi
DeBoer ss 3 0 0 0 Berg c 4 0 2 0
Maursetter lf 3 1 0 0 Thomas 2b 2 2 1 0
Iverson 1b 3 0 0 0 Ericson ss 3 2 1 1
Anderson p 2 0 1 0 Macy lf 4 2 1 0
Akerson cr 0 1 0 0 Weiland dh 3 2 2 2
Jones p 1 0 0 0 Adams rf 3 1 1 2
Jeremiason 3b 2 1 1 0 Lien 1b 3 0 1 1
Breen 2b 3 0 0 0 Bolt 3b 3 0 1 1
Runke c 2 0 0 0 Siekas cf 3 0 1 0
Sather ph 1 0 0 0 Dircks cr 0 1 0 0 Spilseth dh 2 0 0 0
Strand rf 1 0 0 0
Negen cf 3 0 0 1
Totals 25 3 2 1 Totals 29 10 11 7
Willmar 000 300 0 -- 3
Brainerd 014 302 x -- 10
E -- DeBoer, Breen, Runke, Macy, Bolt 3. 2B -- Jeremiason, Thomas. SB -- Thomas, Ericson, Macy. LOB -- W 4, B 7. DP -- Willmar.
IP H R ER BB SO
Willmar
Anderson, L 3.1 7 7 7 2 2
Jones 2.2 4 3 1 2 1
Brainerd
Yde, W 7 2 3 0 4 4
WP -- Jones. HP -- Thomas (by Anderson), Bolt (by Jones). Conference -- W 8-2, B 9-1. Overall -- W 11-2, B 14-2. Next game -- Brainerd hosts St. Cloud Apollo 5 p.m. Thursday.