Zach Nuy pitches win over Pipestone

Zach Nuy was feeling good about his performance after a 5-1 Minneota Mudhen win over the Pipestone A’s Friday night.

“I was a little shaky in the first inning, but then settled down after that,” said the Mudhen right-hander from Canby after his first start of the year. He pitched five innings, allowing just three hits … all in the first inning. After giving up the only run, he went on to strike out six batters with just two walks — and no more hits after that first inning.

Nuy got a little help from catcher Beau Buysse, who scampered after a wild pitch, threw to Nuy, who was covering home, and nailed Jordan Karels trying to score.

It snuffed out a Pipestone rally and ended Pipestone’s hopes. After Nuy came his Canby buddy Bryce Gorder, who pitched two innings, striking out four of the six batters he faced. Buysse switched from catcher to pitcher and mopped up the final two innings with four strikeouts.

Noting his fastball seemed faster than in the past, Buysse said, “I felt good.”

The grand total against Pipestone by the three Mudhen hurlers was five hits, three walks and 14 strikeouts.

The strong pitching helped the Mudhens stay in the game until they could get their bats moving.

In the sixth they broke the game open with a four-run rally off the second and third Pipestone pitchers, Avery Ploeger and Caleb Tinklenburg.

It started with a Jess Drager single followed by a stolen base and wild pitch. Buysse was hit by a pitch (for the second time in the game, Jake Leighton was safe on an error at second by Pipestone  and that all combined to allow Minneota to take the 4-1 lead.

They added a fifth run in the sixth when Alex Pohlen singled and scored. Danny Hennen was hit by a pitch, Drager walked and Pohlen scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike Luke.

The Mudhens got just six hits, but it was enough to hold off Pipestone behind the strong pitching of Nuy, Gorder and Buysse.

DIAMOND NOTES:

•Minneota went to 2-0 on the year.

•The Mudhens played without Adam Durfee and Thomas Fischer, both whom are still playing college ball.

•They play at 7:30 p.m. at home against Granite Falls on Thursday and host Clinton at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

MINNEOTA (AB-R-H-RBI) Beau Buysse, c-p 1 1 0 0; Jake Leighton, rf 4-1-1-0; Tyson Sonnenburg, cf 3-1-0-0; Austin Buysse, 3b 3-0-1-0; Preston Nuy, ss 4-0-0-0; Alex Pohlen, lf 4-1-2-0; Danny Hennen, 1b 3-0-0-0; Jesse Drager, 2b 3 1 2 0; Brant Buysse, 2b 1 0 0 0; Mike Luke, dh 2 0 0 1; Zach Nuy, p 0 0 0 0; Bryce Gorder, p 0-0-0-0; Austin DeVlaeminck, c 1 0 0 0.Totals 29 5 6 1.

PIPESTONE (AB-R-H-RBI) Austin Moller, 3b 3 1 1 0; Austin Karels, rf 3 0 0 0; Aaron Burnett, ph 1 0 0 0; Brandon Alfson, ss 4-0-0-0; Danny Moffitt, dh 3 0 0 0; Austin Evars, p-ph 1 0 0 0; Mitchell Carson, lf 4 0 2 1; Luke Tinklenburg, 1b 3 0 1 0; Caleb Tinklenburgl, cf-p 4 0 0 0; Justin Ropps, 2b 2 0 0 0; Damian Skyberg, 2b 1 0 0 0; Collin Moeller 3 0 0 0. Totals 30 1 5 1.

Score by Innings

Pipetstone          100 000 000 — 1 5 2

Minneota            000 041 00x — 5  6 0

E-Ppestone: Alfson, Ropps. LOB-Minneota 7; Pipestone 4. SB-Minneota: Beau Buysse, Drager; Pipestone: Carson, Evars. SAC-Minneota-Luke.

Pitching                IP    R    ER    H    BB    K

Minneota

Nuy (W)                5     1      1      4     2      6

Gorder                  2     0      0      0     0      4

Buysse                  2     0      0      1     1      4

Pipestone

Evars                    4.1  2      0      4     1      3

Ploeger                 1.1  3      1      2     2      1

Tinklenberg            2     0      0      0     0      2

HP-Buysse (by Evars, Ploeger), Hennen (by Ploeger).WP-Nuy; Evars 2, Ploeger 1.