May 9, 2005

Veterans Memorial Field saw rain, sun, high winds and clouds along with a Kimball victory over the Sobieski Skis this past Saturday as right fielder Aaron Knaus homered and Kris Hagen pitched five solid innings to lead the Express to the non-league win by a score of 4-3.

Knaus put the Express on the board in the second inning with a solo homerun into a stiff wind over the left field wall. It was Knaus’ first homerun of the year and his first since 2003. Knaus ended the day 3-4 with the homerun a double, three runs scored and an rbi. Aaron scored three of the four runs for the Express on the day.

Kimball added single runs in the third, sixth and eighth innings. The Express held a 3-1 advantage going into the eighth inning until Sobieski tallied a single run off reliever Pat Arnold who came on in the seventh inning to relieve lefty Joe Krippner. With the score 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth, Pat Arnold singled home Aaron Knaus who led off the inning with a double to give the Express the insurance run they ended up needing. The Skis plated one more in the ninth and had the bases loaded with two outs before Arnold coaxed Simon Waltman to hit into a fielders choice to end the game and pick up the save.

Brad Czech started for the Skis and went seven complete innings as he took the loss. Kimball pitching held Sobieski to three hits in the game but allowed 13 free passes weather it was via walks or hit batsmen. The Express defense committed 4 errors all of them coming in the last two innings of play. This was Hagen’s (IP 5, K 0, BB 3, H 2, R 1,  ER 1, HP 3) first start of the year and is now 1-0 on the year. Offensively for the Express Jim Brubaker doubled and drove in a run.

Rail Report

The Express now 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the CVL will be on the road for their next four contests. Next week they travel to St. Augusta on Saturday and will be in Luxemburg Sunday with both games starting at 2:00.

Last year Kimball and St. Augusta split the season series and the Express swept the season series with the Luxemburg Brewers. The Gussies and Brewers are both 1-1 on the young CVL season.

19^th Annual Mothers Day Dinner

The Express thank all who attended the 19^th Annual Mothers Day Dinner this past Sunday. Over 500 people were served. It is a treat to see so many deserving mothers come out and get their due at the Playland Ballroom year after year. As always the spread was delicious as the Playland staff works so hard to prepare it. Thanks again to Dennis and Jan Schmitz for all their wonderful help. See you all again next year.