EXPRESS SPLIT OVER THE WEEKEND

May 8, 2006

Saturday afternoon at home the Kimball Express amateur baseball team lost to the 2005 class C state tournament entrant St. Cloud Orthopedic Ice 13-7 in non-league play but then rebounded on Sunday in Eden Valley defeating the Hawks 7-3 to improve to 2-0 in Central Valley League play.

Sunday against the Hawks Jim Brubaker struck out nine and allowed five hits through eight innings of work to pick up his first win of the season and Pat Arnold went 4-5 to lead the offensive attack as the Express picked up their second win in CVL play.

The Hawks jumped out to an early three run lead after two innings of play, but Brubaker settled down after that not allowing another hit until the seventh inning.

The seventh inning is also when the Kimball bats woke up and took the lead. Brooks Marquardt led off with a single and later scored on a hit and run single by brother Scott Marquardt. Adam Beyer got on base via a throwing error by the Hawks third baseman. Pat Arnold then doubled in both runners making it 5-3.

In the ninth the Express added two more insurance runs as Pat Arnold singled driving in two more runs. Brooks Marquardt also had a day at the plate going 3-4 with a triple and three runs scored.

Saturday the Express hosted the St. Cloud Orthopedic Ice and fell to the slugging St. Cloud team 13-7.

Kimball jumped out to an early 5-1 lead after the first inning. It was 6-3 until the seventh inning when the Ice rallied for a pair of runs to cut the lead down to 6-5. In the eighth inning the Ice rallied for three more runs with the big hit coming off the bat of catcher Brian Mathieson as he smoked a two run home run to left center. They wouldn’t look back as the tacked on four more runs in the ninth to give them a commanding 13-7 cushion. The Express could only muster a single run in the eighth after having the bases loaded.

Pat Arnold started on the mound for the Express going five innings striking out four and walking one. He gave up three runs with only one being earned. He was relieved by Nate Turck in the sixth and Joe Krippner finished the game out coming on in relief for Turck in the eighth inning.

Rail Report

A very busy week coming up for the Express as they are at Dassel on Wednesday evening taking the perennial class B power Saints and Friday taking on arguably the best amateur team in the state, the Cold Spring Springers in Cold Spring. Saturday afternoon the Express host the St. Nicholas Nicks. The Nicks are coming off a big win last Sunday as they defeated the St. Augusta Gussies.

20^th Annual Mothers Day Dinner

The Kimball Express and the Playland Ballroom staff will be back at it again this coming Sunday as they put on the annual Mothers Day chicken dinner for all the ladies of the day and their families. We are happy to see everyone that comes out every year and hope for another good turnout again this year.

The money raised from the dinner goes towards improvements to Veterans Memorial Field. As you can see the Express are making many improvements to the park and this fall more work will be done as the Express look to add new dugouts and a new backstop and fence down the lines.

Hope to see everyone there!