MANKATO — Nathan Bridger tossed a five-hitter and ripped a pair of hits Tuesday night to lead Mankato Post 11 American to a 5-1 legion baseball win over Mankato Post 11 National at Wolverton Field.
Bridger allowed a first-inning run before blanking National the rest of the way. The left-hander gave up five hits while striking out five and walking two. Bridger added a second-inning triple and fifth-inning RBI single.
“It was a great team performance to pull that one out,” Bridger said. “We hit well and played great defense. We started the season out a little slow but you always have to bounce back and this was a great start for that. This is a great group of guys and we’ll always be ready to go. I found the zone right away and just kept going at it. Overall, it was a great day at the plate for the whole team. … This was a lot of fun.”
National (3-4) scored its lone run in the top of the first when catcher Emmitt Rentas bounced a two-out single through the hole and scored on first baseman Mason Schreiber’s RBI double to deep right field. Rentas led National with two hits while American received two hits each from left fielder Mason Diede and Bridger.
“It was a good, clean ballgame,” National coach Jamie Mulvihill said. “It was probably the best game we’ve played all year but we just didn’t get any timely hitting. … They got that timely hitting and Bridger is a very tough pitcher to go against.”
American (2-5) tallied a trio of runs in the bottom of the second and Bridger controlled things from there. Bridger smacked a lead-off triple into the right-center field gap and scored on first baseman Owen Studtmann’s sacrifice fly. Second baseman Logan Hasz singled before a hit batter set up Diede’s two-out, two run single.
Third baseman Zach Bosse lined a single up the middle to begin the fifth frame, stole second base and came around on Bridger’s RBI single up the middle. American added a final run in the sixth when Diede delivered a two-out RBI single.
“We might have had a little bit of a burnout, but now our guys are getting up to speed,” American coach Collin Risting said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who played a lot of innings this spring and we’ve got guys who are catching up after not playing a lot. This was a good one to get us going. We competed and finally had the energy we needed.”
American hosts Prior Lake Thursday before both teams compete in the Midwest Classic this weekend in New Ulm.