EXPRESS END TWO GAME SKID WITH A PAIR OF WINS

May 10, 2004

On a beautiful sunny day at Veterans Memorial Field in Willow Creek Park, the Express got back on track as they downed the Luxemburg Brewers 8-3 in Central Valley League action.

Justin Hill (1-0) went seven complete innings throwing shutout baseball while striking out three in his first action of the season to pick up the win. Mike Arnold, Jeremy Kuechle and Aaron Knaus all had good days at the plate to key the Express offense.

Kimball jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Mike Arnold smoked an rbi single and Aaron Knaus drove in a pair to jump start an offense that only had five hits the week before against Pearl Lake.

In the third inning Arnold blasted a lead off homerun to give the Express a 4-0 lead. It was his first home run of the season. Arnold finished the day 3-4 with a homerun, two runs scored and two rbi. Jeremy Kuechle was 2-3 on the afternoon blasting two doubles and drove in two runs as well. He also had a sac fly and a base on balls. Aaron Knaus went 2-5 driving in three runs to give him five rbi on the season.

The Express added a run in the fourth and two more in the sixth before ending the scoring in the seventh inning with Joe Pennertz lacing a double off the left centerfield wall. Knaus brought him around to score with a hard hit single making the score 8-0.

The Brewers got all their runs in the top of the eighth inning as they put together a mini rally off reliver Joe Krippner. All the Brewers hits and runs were with two outs. Jeremy Kuechle came on in the top of the ninth to get some action as he sent the Brewers down in order to end the game.

Two Express newcomers had an impact on the day’s action as third baseman Aaron Jacobs went 2-3 with a double and a run scored. This is Jacobs first year of playing amateur ball and has started all five games for the Express. Youngster Paul Hughes in his first game with the Express drew a pinch-hit walk in his first ever amateur baseball plate appearance. Hughsey is a junior on the Kimball High School team with a huge upside, we look for good things to come in the future from Paul.

St. Nicholas

The 18^th annual Mothers Day Dinner that is put on by the Express, pushed the Central Valley League contest between the Nicks and the Express back to 3:00. That gave Mother Nature more time to move in, as the game was barely considered official. Rain, hail, lightning and high winds cut the game short in St. Nicholas as the Express won 1-0 in five innings.

The Express were able to plate a run in the fourth inning as Jeremy Kuechle continued his hot hitting as he tripled to the right field corner. Scott Marquardt followed that up with a rbi single giving the Express the lead and the win. The game did go into the sixth inning and the Express plated three more runs before the half inning was over and the game called. In this scenario the game goes back to the last complete inning which was the 5^th inning and the final score stands at 1-0. A game must go five complete innings to be considered official.

Kris Hagen (1-0) toed the rubber and gets the victory for the Express as he notches his first win of the season. Hagen worked all five innings and struck out three. This was Hagen’s third start of the season. He has been the victim of two no decisions prior to the Mother’s Day start against the Nicks.