Waterville's bats come to life in 15-8 victory over Braves

Wednesday night, the Waseca Braves baseball team hosted the Waterville Indians in a battle of Highway 13 neighbors. The offense of Waterville delivered big time in the game, building an 11-2 lead, which it turned into a 15-8 victory.

With the loss, the Braves drop to 4-7 this summer, while the Indians improve to 8-6 with the win.

In the top of the first inning, Waterville got the bats going and took advantage of an error in the field to put five runs on the scoreboard, two of them coming off a Brody Boran bloop single to center with the bases loaded. Nolan Wetzel hit another soft bloop to center that scored the fifth and final run of the inning.

Waseca responded in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double to left field from Tyson Reger before he was brought home with a no-doubt homer to right field from lefty Kelvin Nelson. The Indians starting pitcher, Luke Sellner, found his rhythm though and got the final two outs on strikeouts.

After a scoreless second inning, Waterville got the bats going again in the top of the third with a leadoff single up the middle from Dalton Grose. After Sam Stier drew a walk, Nolan Wetzel hit a two-run single and after two more baserunners reached on singles to load the base, Wetzel made the challenge at home on a wild pitch and scored to put the Indians up 8-2.

In the top of the fifth inning, Waterville put three more runs on the board, two of them coming on a Ben Boran double to the left field fence. Waseca was able to get the offense going once again with the bases being loaded with one out when Jimmy Loonan drew a walk after a prolonged battle at the plate.

Ryan Hanson hit an RBI single to chase Sellner, bringing in Nolan Grose for relief. Alex Feeney kept the offense going with an RBI single to the shortstop deep in the hole, and Sabastian Teague drew a bases loaded walk to add another run.

Ben Schoenrock then hit a ball to second which was difficult to handle, resulting in a throwing error that score two more runs, cutting the Indians lead to 11-7 after the final out of the inning.

The sixth inning proved uneventful but in the top of the seventh, Waterville would add three more runs with an RBI single from Boran and a pair of errors adding the other two.

Loonan would hit an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning, for the final run of the game for Waseca and Waterville gave themselves an insurance run in the top of the ninth with an RBI single from D. Grose.

For the Braves, there are scheduled games against Owatonna and Eagle Lake before the Fourth of July holiday, after which they will return to action July 6, with a road game against Morristown. The Indians meanwhile have three games scheduled before Independence Day, returning to action July 7, when they host Morristown.