Heidmann's hit bails out Scearcy

Brainerd Warriors baseball coach Lowell Scearcy was second-guessing himself despite Monday's 3-1 victory over the St. Cloud Tech Tigers at rainy Adamson Field.

With Brainerd trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, Carl Sneep drew a leadoff walk. Scearcy considered having his No. 3 hitter, catcher Kyle Holbrook, bunt Sneep into scoring position. Holbrook owns team highs of five home runs and 15 RBI.

Scearcy decided to let Holbrook swing away and he popped up to the first baseman in foul territory. Mike Germain singled Sneep to second and Tech pitcher Chris Koenig balked the runners into scoring position.

After Grant Eller flied to center for the second out, Zach Heidmann hit a two-run double into the left-field corner, scoring Sneep and Germain with what proved to be the winning runs.

"I'm sure glad Zach came through and bailed me out of that one because had I kept the bunt sign on for Kyle, I was thinking (Koenig) had just walked a guy, he was going to plate one for Kyle and Kyle was going to hit it," Scearcy said.

"Had we bunted successfully, which is never a given, then we would have scored on Mike's hit to left," he added. "I need to thank Zach for bailing me out on that one."

Warriors rebound

Before outscoring the competition 32-6 on their way to sweeping the Princeton tournament last weekend, the Warriors struggled in an 11-5 loss to St. Cloud Apollo, their only loss of the season.

In the loss, Brainerd committed four errors, left eight runners in scoring position against a team it had defeated by the 10-run rule earlier.

Monday's victory erased the memory of that defeat.

"Last week I think we let a little second-in-the-state ranking go to our heads, thinking we were too good to not play hard and to win," Heidmann said. "I think (Monday) we grouped up, came as a team, put the bats together and got them in the late innings."

Mike Bialka can be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5861.