The Express won two Central Valley League games this past weekend at Kimball Veterans Memorial Field. The Litchfield Blues were in town Saturday and the Eden Valley Hawks swooped in for nine innings Sunday to wrap up a very successful regular season for the hometown Express. Eden Valley Mike Arnold broke open a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning to propel the Express to their 14th league win of the season. Pat Arnold (7-0) pitched seven innings to pick up his seventh win of the season. Eden Valley struck first as Joe Theil led off the game with a double down the left field line. The Hawks didn’t score again until the ninth inning as Pat Arnold settled in and kept the Hawks in check. The Express came back in the second inning to tie it up as Mike Arnold drew a walk and later scored on a single by second baseman Brian Marquardt. The score stayed knotted at one until Mike Arnold drove in two with a one out line drive single into left field in the sixth inning. The Express added one more run in the seventh inning as Pat Arnold doubled down the left field line and scored from second base on a single by Nate Turck. Joe Krippner relieved Arnold in the top of the eighth. He pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning but ran into trouble in the ninth as he gave up one run. Jeremy Kuechle relieved Krippner in the ninth to record the last two outs of the game. The win improved the Express overall record to 24-3. They finished at 14-2 in the CVL taking first place in the North Division and first place overall in the CVL. Litchfield Justin Hill (7-0) gave Litchfield the blues on Saturday as he pitched all nine innings with a one hit shutout. Hill has had one of his best seasons yet with seven wins for the year. Quite an amazing feat since he went under the knife last fall to repair some damage in his shoulder. It was a heck of a pitcher’s duel as the Blues threw Bill Bragg the staff ace. Bragg went all nine innings giving up only five hits. One of the five hits was a one out solo homerun in the seventh inning by Mike Arnold. Aaron Knaus added a double along with singles by Brooks Marquardt, Jeremy Kuechle and Brian Marquardt. News and notes The Express start the CVL playoffs against the Pearl Lake Lakers at the Kimball Veterans Memorial Field Sunday, July 13. Kimball is the number one seed and the Lakers are the number four seed in the North. Pearl Lake is on a bit of a roll – they beat the St. Augusta Gussies in a slugfest this past Sunday, 14-11. The Lakers have played close games against the Express this season, but the Express stayed on top in the two games, 6-3 and 3-2. Look for a great game on Sunday as both the Lakers and Express are playing for a berth into the Region 10C tournament. Two teams from the CVL North and two teams from the CVL South will advance in the double elimination league playoffs. Region 10C is a six-team tourney with the other two teams coming out of the Lakewood League East. The favorites to come out of the Lakewood East are the Clear Lake Lakers and the Sauk Rapids Cyclones. The site for the Region 10C tourney is yet to be determined, although it is Cold Spring’s turn to host. The Express would like to thank the many fans who have supported them this season. Express players want fans to know how great it is to see everyone down at the ballpark. Thank you. We hope to keep the train going all the way to Northfield and Dundas for the 2003 state tournament.
