St. Cloud Area Amateur Baseball Team | Granite City Grays Baseball Club

July 29th -- GC Won their final 3 regular season game to finish 15-3 in the league and wrap up the #1 seed in the division playoffs. That set up a 1st round matchup with the Becker Bandits last weekend and the Grays were victorious with 10-0 and 15-2 wins (both in 8 innings) to secure a 1st round victory and move on to the 2nd weekend and the 3 team round robin.

Freeport and Clear Lake, the #2 and #4 seeds respectively will be joining GC in the round robin which takes place on Saturday with a tripleheader in Freeport due to the MAC's unavailability.

Game 1: Clear Lake @ Freeport - 11:00 am

Game 2: Clear Lake @ Granite City - 1:30 pm

Game 3: Freeport @ Granite City - 4:00 pm

It should be a great day of baseball in Freeport with 3 solid baseball teams going at it. Being the #1 seed, GC only needs to win 1 game to move on to regions. If all teams go 1-1, Clear Lake and Freeport will play a winner take all game on Sunday with a berth to the Region 10C tournament in St. Joe the following weekend.

July 13th -- Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Since we were last with you, the Grays have improved to 15-5 overall and 12-3 in the Lakewood League with 3 games to play this coming weekend. Right now Granite City is in 1st place, but it will be a tight race down to the final game of the regular season.

Right behind GC is Freeport who enter the weekend 1/2 game behind the Grays at 12-4 in the league. It should be a good weekend of baseball that will more than likely come down to Monday night when the Grays take on Brainerd at the MAC in St. Cloud. Before that though, GC will receive a visit from Litchfield on Saturday afternoon, and Clear Lake on Sunday afternoon.

GC Caps Road Trip With Victory Over Cold Spring Springers

June 16th - On Monday night, the Grays traveled out to Cold Spring to wrap up a 3 league games in 3 days trip. After winning the first two, 8-1 in Sauk Centre on Saturday and 8-2 in Clear Lake on Sunday, they had to face the Class B state powerhouse. After a rough start, GC came away with a 10-4 victory to cap their 3rd league win in 3 days.

Saturday saw the Grays travel to Elrosa for matchup with Sauk Centre. GC won the first meeting of the year 6-0 behind a no-hitter from Billy Sommers on May 29th. This time, Sommers was on the mound again and the no-hitter was over early as Sommers gave up a single to the 2nd SC batter of the game in the home half of the 1st, but not before the Grays gave Sommers a 2-0 lead in the top half of the inning. GC would add two more in the 5th and four more in the 9th en route to an 8-1 victory. Sommers threw 8 strong innings finishing with the day giving 1 ER on 4 hits while striking out 7. Josh Boom led the Grays at the plate going 3-4 with 4 RBI.

A visit to Clear Lake was up next on Sunday and the Grays had to battle in this one, but behind a strong effort on the hill by Collin Stinogel and a 5-run outburst in the top of the 9th while clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Grays came away with an 8-2 victory. Stinogel got the W while going the distance giving up 2 runs (1 ER) on 5 hits while striking out 10. Offensively, Dave Carlson was 3-5 with an RBI and Buddha Mathiasen went 2-4 with 2 RBI.

Monday was the visit to Cold Spring and after a rough start, the Grays broke out the bats to finish the night with 17 hits and a 10-4 victory. Hurler Nick Maiers made his 1st Grays start of the year after returning from Thunder Bay of the Northwoods League and got a stiff first test. After a scoreless 1st, Cold Spring benefitted from a dropped fly ball in CF to lead off the inning, got a BB to follow that, and on a sac attempt by the next Springer GC dropped the throw at 1st and just like that there the bases were loaded with no outs. Maiers was able to get a strikeout and flyout with no runs scoring but GC made another error in the infield which led to a run before the next Springer laced a single to score 2 runs and make it a 3-0 Springer lead. After that it was smooth sailing for Maiers on the hill and GC decided to hit a little bit putting up 13 hits and scoring 5 runs in 6 innings off a recent Tampa Bay Rays AA farmhand. Grays catcher Buddha Mathiasen had the big hit in the 7th as he laced a 2 run double to the left center gap with no outs to give the Grays a 4-3 lead which they would not relinquish. GC Scored runs in the last 5 innings, putting up 3 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to seal the deal and secure a victory over a very good Cold Spring squad. Nick Maiers went the distance for the Grays scattering 6 hits while giving up 4 runs (1 ER) and striking out 8. Kevin Wenner had 4 hits to lead the Grays attack.

Next up is a matchup with the St. Cloud Snappers who are current leading the other division in the Lakewood League.

June 7th - Granite City spent the past weekend playing in the Stearns County Classic hosted by St. Martin and Lake Henry. It was the 2nd year of the tourney, and the 2nd year in which GC has participated.

The Grays got a very good Sobieski Skis team in the first round and came out on the losing end, 1-0, in 8 innings (tourney games were only 7). For the 2nd straight year, GC and their starting pitching, Collin Stinogel, dropped a 1-0 game to open up the tourney. The Grays offense was non-existent in this one (2 hits), as they didn't manage a good clean hit in 8 innings and had the tying run thrown out at the plate on a bloop single in bottom of the 8th after the Skis scored on a wild pitch with 2 outs in the top of the 8th to take the 1-0 lead. Stinogel gave the Grays every chance to win by going all 8 innings and scattering 8 hits while striking out 9 Ski batters.

After losing their opener, it was right back to the field to take on Raymond in the consolation semifinals. Billy Sommers took the hill for the Grays in his first start since no-hitting Sauk Centre the weekend before. GC's offense was still non-existent in this one, but somehow they managed to pull out a 6-4 win while only having one (yes, ONE) hit. And most would even argue it should've been an error, so technically, GC won and scored 6 runs without a hit. That is something only the Granite City Grays could pull off. GC took advantage of 10 BB's, 3 HBP and 2 Raymond errors to put up 6 runs and escape with a very ugly win. GC got the winning run in the top of the 7th on a bases loaded suicide squeeze by Matt Peck. Sommers closed the door in the bottom of the 7th for the complete game victory to improve his record to 3-0 on the year. Collin Stinogel led the offense going 0-1 with 3 BB's and scoring a couple runs.

Waking up for a noon game on Sunday was tough for most teams involved in the tourney, but GC woke up with their bats ready to go en route to an 11-0 victory over host St. Martin. After a couple dismal performances at the plate in the first 2 games, GC came out swinging with 3 hits to lead off the game as they put up 4 runs and batted around in the top of the 1st. It was all GC starter Adam Johnson would need as he cruised through 5 innings for the complete game shutout (10 run rule after 5) striking out 10 Martins and allowing 2 hits, while also going 2-3 with a BB at the plate. Offensively the Grays were lead by Brace Hemmelgarn who was 2-4 with 3 RBI, Josh Boom who was 2-2 with a BB, and Josh Janzen who was 1-1 with 2 BB's. All in all, it was a good weekend for the Grays who finished 2-1 on the weekend and wrapped up their second consecutive 5th place finish in the tourney. Next up, is three league games as the Grays become road warriors as they travel to Elrosa on Saturday to face Sauk Centre, to Clear Lake on Sunday, and out to Cold Spring to take on the Springers on Monday night.

June 1st - It's been a good few days for the Grays as they have now won three Lakewood League games in a row after dropping their opener to Freeport.

On Sunday, May 29th, Grays starter Billy Sommers got a win in a big way by throwing the 1st No-Hitter in Granite City Grays history with a 6-1 victory over Sauk Centre. Sommers gave up what looked like a base hit to lead off the game to right field, but the runner was thrown out at 1st base and what should've been a hit turned into a routine 9-3 groundout. From there, Sommers would not look back.

Sommers only bump in the road was a HBP to the leadoff guy in the top of the 5th. That runner stole 2nd, advanced to 3rd and scored on consectutive groundouts. That was all Sauk Centre could do offensively.

Sommers ended the day striking out 8 Titans, walking 1 and hitting while giving up the 1 run and no hits to pick up his 2nd win of the year.

Offensively, Adam Johnson led the way for the Grays as he was 3-4 with 4 RBI's on the day. A 2-run single from Johnson in the 4th and a 2-run double in the 8th helped seal the deal.

On Tuesday night, the Grays got a visit from the St. Joe Saints for a game which featured 30-40 mph wind gusts straight out to center field. For years the Saints have been a thorn in the Grays side and for the first time in what felt like forever, GC came away with a decisive victory, 12-6.

On the hill for St. Joe was former Gray, Bubba Hollenhorst, making a return to amateur ball after a 2+ year absence due to his foreign and domestic travels. The Grays were able to jump out early with 4 runs in the bottom of the 2nd capped by a 2-out 2-run single by Kevin Wenner to give GC starter, Adam Johnson, a 4-0 lead to work with. St. Joe then responded with a run in the top of the 3rd coming after a two out error by the Grays to make it 4-1 Grays.

Johnson was able to help his own cause in the bottom of the 3rd as he got the run back by lining a ball down the right field line for home run to give the Grays their 4-run lead back. Back on the hill, Johnson struggled a little bit with his command on the night but was able to get through 4 2/3 but not before the Saints strung some hits and walks together to tie the score at 5. With runners on the corners and 2-outs, Brett Hemmelgarn came on in relief of Johnson and got saved by a spectacular running catch by centerfielder Wenner to end the inning and save 2 runs with the potential for more.

GC battled back to take the lead in the bottom of the 5th after an error by the Saints led to Nick Hengel's single to left field with Wenner scoring from 3rd. St. Joe would not give up though as they scored a run in the top of the 6th to tie the score once again at 6. That would be the end of the scoring for the Saints though.

In the bottom of the 6th, after a leadoff flyout, GC used a BB and 2 singles before a bases clearing triple by Kevin Wenner put them ahead for good. Nick Hengel's squeeze play scored Wenner from 3rd and made it 10-6 Grays. GC would tack on 2 more insurance runs in the bottom of the 7th to make it a 12-6 game and the way it would finish. St. Joe went down in order in the 8th and 9th and the Grays got a much needed win.

Wenner was 2-4 with 5 RBI on the day, Hengel drove in 2 runs, and Ben Spaniol had 2 hits and scored 2 runs. Hemmelgarn got the win on the mound going 4 1/3 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 run.

Next up for GC is the Stearns County Classic hosted by St. Martin and Lake Henry, June 4th and 5th. Also in the field are Sobieski, Milroy, Midway, Cold Spring Rockies and Raymond. Only the 2nd year of the tournament, but definitely one GC will be playing in for a long time as long as they'll have us.

May 25th -- The Grays got back into the win column last night with a 16-3 victory under the lights in Eden Valley. GC put up 6 in the 1st inning on a triple by Adam Johnson which plated two runs, an RBI single from Buddha Mathiasen, and then a blast from pitcher Collin Stinogel who hit a rocket over the left field fence for a 3-Run HR to give the Grays a 6-0 lead.

Stinogel got the win on the mound (1-0) going 4 innings and giving up 1 run on 1 hit before giving way to the bullpen. 3 other pitchers saw the mound after Stinogel left as GC evened their record to 2-2 on this young season.

It was a shocking moment for the Grays, as they doubled their roster for the game going from 9 guys in the previous games, to 18 for this one. All 18 guys saw the field and got a couple at-bats as we look ahead to two Lakewood League games this weekend.

Granite City would also like to extend a congratulations to Nitty Gritty Gray Nick Maiers who will be leaving us for a month to pitch for the Thunder Bay Border Cats of the Northwood Leagues after a stellar freshmen season on the mound at St. Cloud State University.

May 24th -- As usual, I'm behind on my updates. I'll blame it on coaching 9th grade baseball this time and being busy. Anyway, the 2011 season opened with a 6-0 loss to the Freeport Black Sox on May 11th. Being it was game one, obviously the Grays were short on guys because that's how we roll. Nevertheless, Grays starter Brett Hemmelgarn couldn't match his old 9th grade and Legion baseball coach, Rob Metterburg, even though he was teamed up again with high school battery mate, and new Gray, Buddha Mathiasen. Metterburg shut down the Grays offense and Freeport was able to string enough hits together to get the Lakewood League victory.

Game 2 was more of the same for the Grays, as the Iron Nine showed up this time and beat the Becker Bandits 12-3. The bats showed up in this one as the Grays took an early lead before busting out for 7 runs in the top of the 7th to take the 12-3 lead. Billy Sommers was effective as usual on the mound and got his 1st win of the year in his 1st start. The win got the Grays to .500 in the Lakewood League.

Game 3 was finally an exhibition game for the Grays, and yep, you guessed it, it was the Iron Nine again for GC. To make things even better, the field we moved the game to was not prepped for us and the infield was like playing on cement. After a stolen base for Avon and a slide into 2nd in the bottom of the 1st, nobody dared to slide anymore after the pain the basestealer was feeling. GC was not able to pull this one out as they dropped a 7-5 decision to Avon. Some arms got to see some time on the mound, outfielders got to play some infield and it didn't rain. So all in all, no complaints.

In the last two weeks, we also had to postpone 2 Lakewood games (Cold Spring Springers & Brainerd Bees) and cancel another one (Luxemburg) due to those little bits of rain we've been getting.

Tomorrow night we're back at it and from the looks of it, we'll actually have more than 9 guys which will be nice for a change. A game with Eden Valley will take place tomorrow night before we jump back into Lakewood League play with 2 home game against St. Joseph (Friday) and Sauk Centre (Sunday) at Dick Putz Field. Come on out to the park, we promise we'll play better than the Twins have lately.

May 1st, 2011 -- It's been a while, but the site is finally getting updated. The 2011 schedule is up, and the 2011 roster is available as well (possibly a few # changes yet to come).

We are ten days from our 2011 opener, a Lakewood matchup against the Freeport Black Sox on Wednesday May 11th at 7:00 in St. Cloud. What is sure to be a shorthanded Grays roster, they'll look to take down the 2010 region particpant as the season gets underway.
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