Tritch tosses a gem as Mayer keeps season alive with win over Glencoe

HAMBURG – Blake Tritch had everything working early on for the Mayer Blazers as they looked to keep their season alive. He just needed his offense to back him off.

After getting off to a slow start, the Blazers used a three-run fifth inning to take control and held on down the stretch for a 7-0 win over the Glencoe Brewers Monday night.

Both Glencoe and Mayer had chances early on to take the lead. After a two-out walk in the top of the first to Colt Trebesch, the Brewers stranded him at second to end the inning.

In the bottom of the first, Mayer had a chance of their own. After the first two batters of the inning were retired, Tritch kept the inning alive with a single. After back-to-back walks, the Blazers had the bases loaded but Derek Bratsch worked out of the jam with a big strikeout. 

The Brewers had another chance to strike first in the top of the third. Derek Weber led off the inning with a single and then Jake Christianson reached on an error to give the Brewers two runners on with no outs. Tritch had the answer in a big way, striking out three in a row to get Mayer out of the jam and keep it a scoreless game.

After neither team could get things going early, it was the Blazers who were finally able to break through. After Henry Bushey led off the inning with a solo home run to break the scoreless tie, Mayer used three-straight two-out hits from Blake Tritch, Joe Burns, and Arich Juberian to push their lead to 3-0 as they chased Glencoe’s Derek Bratsch from the game. 

A three-run lead was more than enough for Tritch as he had the strikeouts working early and often. In his seven innings of work, he struck out 18 batters. He had at least two strikeouts in every inning and struck out the side three different times. 

Following a dominant start from Tritch, Blazers tagged on four more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the Brewers away for good.

With the win, Mayer keeps its season alive and will face the Carver Black Sox Friday night in Hamburg in a state qualifier/elimination game. The winner of the matchup between the Blazers and Black Sox will secure a spot at the Class C State Tournament while the loser will have their season come to an end. Carver opened the Region 7C Tournament upsetting No. 2 Plato before falling to No. 3 Waconia in their second game.

For in-game updates on the matchup between Carver and Mayer, follow Kip Kovar on Twitter/X – @Kovar_HJSports