Saints earn walk off victory over Twins

With many Southern Minnesota communities dealing with the continuing fallout of historic rainfall causing flooding and damage across the region, members of the St. Peter Saints and Mankato Twins senior men’s baseball teams gathered in St. Peter’s Veterans Memorial Park to find a form of respite in America’s pastime.

The game, which featured a walk-off rally in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Saints, also set the table for a pair memorable returns to the diamond for St. Peter. Eric Nachreiner took to the field with brothers Jeremy and Mike for the first time in 15 years while Shea Roehrkasse returned to the plate for the Saints for the first time in five years.

The game saw Steve Winkler take to the mound for St. Peter and immediately get to work against the Mankato hitters, striking out the leadoff hitter before a lineout to centerfield and groundout to shortstop. In the bottom of the first inning, M. Nachreiner drew a leadoff walk and used the opportunity on base to steal second, getting his left hand on the bag just ahead of the tag.

After a pop out to right field, Ryan Gebur drilled an RBI double into the left centerfield gap to bring Nachreiner home, putting the Saints up 1-0. Winkler struck out the side in the top of the second inning to setup up Roehrkasse’s first at-bat.

Shea, leading off in the bottom of the second, connected on a 3-1 pitch and crushed the ball over the head of the Twins’ centerfielder for a double that one hopped into the fence. After a popup to short and a groundout to the pitcher, Winkler aided his own cause with an RBI single to left that brought Roehrkasse across home plate.

In the top of the third inning, Eric and Jeremy entered the field, at second and third base respectively, to join Mike, who was behind the plate for the Saints, putting all three Nachreiner brothers onto the field together for the first time in 15 years. The final out of the inning came on a popup to second that Eric was able track down while tumbling to the grass just outside of the infield.

In the top of the fourth, Mankato finally got onto the board with three runs, taking a 3-2 lead that they would maintain until the bottom of the seventh. With the game on the line, Winkler would prove to be hero with a walk off winner, giving the Saints the 4-3 victory.

The win is the third in a row for the Saints after falling 2-0 to Southwest in the season opener. While the near future for games is certainly in doubt due to continued flooding and road closures, the Saints are scheduled to return to action Friday, June 28, when they make the trip to Le Center for a battle with Braves with first pitch scheduled for 7:30 p.m.