As far as Cleveland manager Dave Thomas is concerned, his team’s 6-2 victory over Lansing on Tuesday was due to just one factor.
“Mike Muenster,” Thomas said. “Mike Muenster says it all.”
The right-handed Muenster struck out nine, walked six and gave up seven hits in the elimination game at Franklin Field.
He started strong, striking out four of the first eight batters he faced, and persisted through all nine innings for the J. L. Thomas team.
“His second wind kicked in about the seventh inning, and he was OK,” Thomas said. “Good defense helps, too, and it helps scoring a lot of runs.”
Muenster, veteran of a league that plays nine-inning games in the regular season, said he felt good all day.
“Hitting, defense – it was all there,” he said. “My job is to throw strikes, and my team’s is to produce. That’s what they did, and that’s how we got the win.”
Errors were a factor as well.
Carl’s Supermarket committed nine. Two-thirds of Cleveland’s runs were unearned.
“In the first five innings, we had two walks and two hit-by-pitches, and every one of them scored,” Lansing manager Andy Joseph said. “We’re not good enough to give them that.”
Joseph said errors were a contributing factor in his team’s loss on Monday as well.
Cleveland took advantage of Lansing miscues early, scoring a first-inning run after starter Cody Shaw hit Kurt Thomas on the wrist with a pitch. Kurt Thomas reached second on a wild pitch and scored on Greg Turk’s single.
Cleveland added two more runs in the second. John Ulanski walked, Shane Spies singled and both scored on T. J. Murphy’s base hit.
Lansing got a run back in the third when Aaron Mendes singled home Zane Johnston, who had also singled.
Muenster said that was the only point in the game when he was concerned.
“I walked the first guy, then they got a hit in the gap,” he said. “Then, my defense made the plays for me. That’s all you can ask for.”
Cleveland scored again in the fifth after Kurt Thomas reached on an error and Scott Foster’s sacrifice brought him home, then added two more runs in the sixth. One came from Murphy, who singled and scored on a throwing error. The other was by Evann Farren, who was hit by a pitch and scored on an error.
Lansing managed another run in the eighth. Cody Grace singled, stole second, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Mike Baldino’s sacrifice.
“Basically, we didn’t hit the ball,” Joseph said. “(Monday), we had a couple errors. (Tuesday), we had a couple errors that were crucial. But, we didn’t hit the ball. We knew we had to score runs, and we didn’t.”
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