Gulls rally in 9th

There is nothing more exciting than watching your team come back and win a ball game in the bottom of the ninth inning.

With 600-plus fans at Mills Field, the Brainerd Mighty Gulls excited the crowd by coming back from a four-run deficit to win 6-5 in the ninth inning over the Wisconsin Woodchucks Monday night.

After a fourth-inning grand slam home run by the Woodchucks' Steve Guden, the Gulls found themselves down 5-1 in a hurry. That score remained until the Gulls' bats came alive in the bottom of the seventh as they smacked out six hits and scored four runs to tie the game 5-5.

Gulls starting pitcher Mike Ziroli was relieved in the ninth by Al Bomer, who has come on in situations like this all year. Bomer shut down the Woodchucks to give the Gulls a chance.

Frederickson led off with a big walk and Joe Lima pinch-ran for him. Mike McCoy did his job by laying down a sacrifice bunt to advance Lima to second. Luke Appert was intentionally walked to set up force plays. Joe Urban stepped to the plate and came through with a single that scored Lima to give Bomer and the Gulls the win.

"I was basically looking fastball," said Lima of his last at-bat. "He started with a curve ball so I kind of changed my mind at the plate after that. He threw a curve ball again and I got enough wood on it to put it in the outfield and score the run."

All year the Gulls have looked to Bomer in big games.

"This year my role has been to come in relief and help us win ball games," said Bomer who improved his record to 4-1. "At school (Iowa State) I was a starting pitcher so it's a big change to be a reliever. I think there is a lot more energy and adrenaline when I come in an throw just one inning, especially in close games like this one."

Coming back from a long road trip, this win was a big one for the Gulls.

"This game will start a good run for us," said Gulls coach Eric Coleman. "We did our job tonight. We never gave up. We could have easily gave up after the grand slam but we didn't.

Offensively the Gulls were led by Sam Steidl who was 2-for-3 with a double, RBI, and a run scored. Urban was 2-for-5 with two RBI, and Ryan Wickham was 2-for-5.

The Gulls improve to 23-25 on the season and will take on the 28-21 Woodchucks again tonight. Mike Osequera, who is undefeated on the mound this year with a 3-0 record and a 2.51 ERA, will get the start

WISCONSIN BRAINERD

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Augustine 2b 5 0 1 0 McCoy 2b 3 1 1 1

Stanley cf 5 1 2 0 Wickham dh 5 1 2 1

Hinrichs lf 2 2 2 0 Appert 3b 2 1 1 0

Underwood 1b 4 1 3 1 Urban 1b 5 0 2 2

Shuler ss/3b 4 0 0 0 Steidl rf 3 1 2 1

Guden dh 3 1 1 4 Beshears ss 4 0 0 0

Hodges rf 3 0 1 0 Johns lf 4 0 1 0

Alvord c 2 0 0 0 Tornberg cf 4 1 1 0

Gusich 3b 3 0 0 0 Frederickson c 3 0 0 0

Hudson ss 0 0 0 0 Lima pr 0 1 0 0

Totals 31 5 10 5 Totals 33 6 10 5

Wisconsin 100 400 000 -- 5

Brainerd 010 000 401 -- 6

E --Wilkins, Beshears. 2B --Underwood, Steidl. HR --Guden. SB --Hinrichs, Hodges, McCoy, Steidl. Sac --McCoy. LOB --W 6, B 8.

IP H R ER BB SO

Wisconsin

Wilkins 7.0 9 5 5 2 8

McNab 1.2 1 1 1 2 0

Magrane 0 0 0 0 0 0

Brainerd

Ziroli 8.0 8 5 5 2 8

Bomer 1.0 2 0 0 1 1

WP --Bomer. HP --Appert, Steidl, Guden, Hinrichs, Hodges . Attendance --629. Overall --Brd 23-25, W 28-21. Next game --Gulls host Wisconsin today at 7:05.