Lena/Oconto Win Regional Championships

Late Inning Runs

Lift Lena Past

Goodman/Pembine in

Regional Title Game

Lena scored eight runs in the sixth inning to overcome 10 errors and defeat Goodman-Pembine on Wednesday and move within one game of the sectional championship.

Lena put two runners on via singles from Josh Kristof and Ty Shallow in the first but couldn't push a runner across. The Wildcats left a runner at third in the second after a leadoff error.

The Patriots made them pay for an error in the second. After Boone Larison walked with one out, Bryson McVay reached and brought Larison home on an error from the second baseman.

Lena quickly countered on offense to pick up the defense. Four straight singles by Ty Shallow, Logan Graef, Logan Shallow, and Kristof brought in two runs. Logan Whiting was hit by a pitch, and Bryce Kittredge smacked a single to second to score Logan Shallow. A groundout by Reed Hosking scored Whiting to make it 4-1.

Errors cost Lena in the third. Three mistakes helped G-P take a 6-4 lead. Ryan Ehlert walked to lead off the inning and Eli Marcy singled him home after he stole second.

Jacob Kessel, Marcy, Landon Kalkoen, and McVay all scored on errors, and suddenly the game was flipped on its head.

Both teams scored one run in the fifth, but it was the sixth inning where Lena's offense really exploded.

Logan Shallow took a walk out of a full count from Ehlert to start the inning and Kristof singled past the second baseman.

Whiting singled home Shallow and Kristof scored when Kittredge reached on an error. Anthony Seefeldt doubled home a pair, then a walk by Hosking and a single by Sam Marquardt loaded the bases with no outs.

Ty Shallow popped out, but Graef doubled to center to clear the bases. Logan Shallow, who started the inning with a walk, singled in Graef to give the Wildcats a 13-7 lead they wouldn't relinquish.

"They didn't quit. We were down 6-4. I walked to the mound and I told them, "You can go back to your spots, roll over, and die and we'll go home right now,' and it was like a light switch," Lena coach Doug Jahnke said. "They bucked up and they went to the plate. We got some timely hits, we got some close plays, good calls, but we put the ball in play. That's been the name of the game."

At the dish, Ty Shallow was 5-6 with two RBIs and a run scored. Logan Shallow, Hosking and Graef each had two runs and two RBIs and Kittredge added three runs scored and two RBIs. Seefeldt had two RBIs and whiting scored twice.

Logan Shallow ended up with the win, allowing three runs (one earned) over 4.1 innings. He struck out six. Between Shallow and Graef, who threw the other 2.2 innings, just two of nine runs were earned.

Kevin Strietzel took the loss, allowing five runs on 10 hits and two walks. He struck out 10.

At the plate, Kalkoen was 2-4 with two runs scored. Kessel and Ehlert each scored twice.

The loss brings about the departure of several Patriot seniors: Kessel, Larison, Ethan Roff, Strietzel, Nathan Balcerzak, and Marcy.

Lena went on to face No. 1 Columbus Catholic on Tuesday.



Oconto Rallies Past

Coleman To Win

Regional Title

"Anybody, any day."

On Wednesday, it was Coach Tom Armstrong and the Oconto Blue Devils' day, as they eliminated Coleman and advanced in the Division 3 sectionals.

The loss was just Coleman's second of the season, and it came at the last moment. With two outs and two on, the Cougars led 9-7.

Alex Fuller and Ethan Wusterbarth had walked to start the inning before a popout and a flyout.

Luke Krueger kept things going with a single to left that scored Fuller and moved Wusterbarth to second. After taking one strike, Riley Anderson tripled to right to give Oconto a lead, 10-9, and Conner Christensen launched a two-run home run to left to extend the lead to 12-9.

The Blue Devils held serve in the seventh, with Fuller recording the final three outs. It was Fuller who pitched the first three innings as well.

After allowing six runs in three innings, he gave way to Krueger, but Armstrong turned to Fuller again for the final three outs.

He allowed a leadoff single to Eli Zablocki, but settled in to record three straight outs and keep the tying run in the on-deck circle.

"I was not expecting that. It messed with me a little bit. I was not ready to go back on, but it happens," Fuller said.

All three of those final outs were put in play, with one fielder's choice groundout to shortstop and two fly balls to left and center.

That was the name of the game for Fuller, who recorded just two strikeouts. In total, just three Cougar batters struck out in the game.

"It all goes toward my teammates. I think I had a total of two strikeouts. All the other balls were put into play and my teammates made plays," Fuller said.

The five-run outburst in the seventh was obviously huge, but Oconto also scored five runs in the second inning, taking advantage of three Coleman errors in the frame.

That meant that when Coleman scored five of its own in the third, it only tied the game at six instead of giving the Cougars control. Still, the Cougars managed to stay in the lead until the final inning and final out. That might be what stings the most for those in the Coleman dugout.

"Completely different game today than it was yesterday. Yesterday we did everything right, great defense, and today we just stunk it up. That's what it was," Coleman coach Kent Casper said after the game. "You can't have all the errors that we had. Just constantly, error, error, error, error, but yet we still had a chance to win it and a two-run lead. That's what's heartbreaking is that as bad as we played, you still had a chance to win and you had the lead. That's what hurts."

Coleman committed five errors in the loss.

The loss sees the departure of several key Coleman seniors, including Nosgovitz, Zablocki, Cole Klimek, Karson Casper, and Brody Zahn.

Casper was 2-3 with a run and an RBI in the game. Zablocki was 2-4 with an RBI. Logan Kurth also went 2-3 with three RBIs and Ray Lemieux was 2-4 with four runs scored. Joe Olsen added two RBIs.

Casper and Kurth threw three innings each. Casper allowed six runs, all unearned, while Kurth allowed three runs (two earned). Nosgovitz took the loss, allowing three runs while getting three outs.

The Cougars will obviously be disappointed to see their season end the way it did, but there was still a lot of good for the Cougars this season.

They won 22 games, shared the M&O Conference regular season title, and won the M&O Conference tournament championship game.

Meanwhile, No. 2 Oconto moved on to face top-seeded Stratford with a sectional championship berth on the line on Tuesday.

"It's a great thing. Coleman's got a tremendous program. To get them on their field, our kids never quit. That's what I was proud of," Armstrong said. "Win or lose, I was proud of the way we competed all game. Then we got a couple big hits in the seventh and good things happened."

Krueger went 3-5 with a run and an RBI, Anderson was 1-3 with the go-ahead three-RBI hit and a run scored, and Christensen was 1-3 with the two-run home run for insurance in the seventh.

Wusterbarth also scored three runs and Bryton Fuller was 2-3 with a run and an RBI..



Oconto Beats Stratford;

Falls to Amherst

in Sectional Final

Oconto's run through Division 3 playoffs came to an end against No. 1 seed Amherst on Tuesday, but not before the 2-seeded Blue Devils knocked off two one seeds and a three seed on their way to the sectional championship game.

The Blue Devils started Tuesday off with a win over No. 1 Stratford before a 10-0 loss to another No. 1 seed, Amherst. It was Oconto's third straight game against a top seed after beating Coleman last week.

Oconto pitcher Conner Christensen doubled in senior Riley Anderson and scored on a wild pitch to give his team a 2-0 lead in the first inning. In the top of the fifth, it was Anderson, Christensen and Devon Bostwick starting things again. Anderson was hit by a pitch, Christensen singled, and Bostwick singled in Anderson. Kyle Bowman was hit by a pitch before Alex Fuller singled home two.

After four scoreless innings, including a fourth inning where he stranded runners on second and third, the Tigers got to Christensen in the fifth, scoring three runs on two hits and three walks.

Bostwick came in to seal the win. He loaded the bases with two outs, but induced a 6-3 groundout to end the threat, then shut things down in the seventh, allowing one runner on a dropped third strike but navigated around it.

Anderson was 2-3 with two runs scored in the game. Christensen was 2-4 with a double and an RBI and Bostwick was 2-4 with a run and RBI. Fuller and Ethan Wusterbarth were both 1-3, with two RBIs from Fuller.

In game two, the Blue Devils couldn't match the Falcon offense against pitcher Wyatt Blaskowski.

Blaskowski, who hasn't lost a game all year, led the way for a Falcons team that also hasn't lost a game all year. He followed up UW-Milwaukee pitching commit Ben Lee, who threw game one on Tuesday and allowed one run in seven innings to beat Kewaunee.

Blaskowski was every bit as good against Oconto, as he struck out six and allowed just one hit over five scoreless innings. He hit one batter and didn't walk any.

"He can throw strikes, he threw hard, and he had a nice little spinner," Oconto coach Tom Armstrong said. "The team we played today, they're undefeated for a reason. They've got pitching depth, they've got hitters ?? the whole nine yards. Sometimes you've got to give credit to the other team. They're good. To play a team like that we had to get off to a good start, and that didn't happen."

Facing Bostwick, the Falcons scored one run in the first before loading up with six runs in the second. Five walks and an error contributed to the damage.

Anderson had the Blue Devils' only hit. He reached twice after getting on by error in the first, but no runner got past first against Blaskowski.

The Blue Devils have a lot to look back fondly on and a lot to look forward to. They return most of their pitching staff, including every pitcher that threw Tuesday except Luke Krueger.

"All our pitching except Luke pitching at the end, the top of our rotation is all back next year and our catcher is back. We've got a lot of our guys back," Armstrong said. "We'll see. We'll have to develop some guys and see if they can take that next step up."

Their seniors were a big part of what the team did this postseason. As seniors, it can be easy for players to start looking ahead. Summer is just around the corner and many are looking forward to what is to come, but the Blue Devil seniors were all in.

"I really appreciate the way the seniors came out and led us" Armstrong said. "They wanted to keep going, and sometimes when you get at the end of the year I say "If the seniors are in, you've got a chance, and if the seniors aren't, the year would have been gone two weeks ago.'"



Wildcats Fall to Dons

In Sectional Semi-Final

Things couldn't have started off better for the Lena Wildcats in Tuesday's sectional matchup against Columbus Catholic, but it wasn't meant to be for the Wildcats, as the Dons piled up the runs and took a 11-2 win into the sectional championship game.

Wildcat senior Logan Shallow crushed a two-out solo home run in the first inning to give his team the lead.

"He threw two balls outside, and 2-0 he had to come to me. He leaked one over the middle and I took advantage of it, got a piece of it, and it went," Shallow said.

However, the Dons quickly countered, scoring four runs in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of three walks, two singles, and a double. They tacked on three more in the second and four in the fourth before Lena scored its final run of the game, a Sam Marquardt single and score in the fifth.

After Shallow's first-inning bomb, Lena had just four hits the rest of the game, all singles. Logan Shallow finished 1 for 2 with a walk, Bryce Kittredge went 3 for 3 and Sam Marquardt finished 1 for 3 with a run scored.

"We couldn't string together hits. That's the story. We're not that great defensively; we're going to give up some runs," Lena coach Doug Jahnke said. "Giving up 11 is a little far, but we're going to give up some runs. We've just got to hang some runs and we didn't do that. We've got to strike out less than four times and we've got to hang eight or more runs to be successful. If we're not doing that, we're not successful."

Lane Whiting took the loss. Shallow and Whiting are the team's only seniors this year. They went out strong, having led Lena to sectionals in its first season as an individual baseball program. Lena played as a co-op with Saint Thomas Aquinas Academy in past years. That co-op made it to sectionals last season as well.

"It's amazing. We made it to sectionals last year, and it feels great to make it again," Whiting said. "A lot of kids don't get the opportunity to play in it, so it's great."

Doing it in the first year of Lena baseball was also pretty special.

"The seven that I had this year that were out last year, they were all at the sectional when we were co-opped," Jahnke said. "Now, for them to have Wildcats on their jersey, that means a lot more."

He also spoke after the game about building a baseball culture in Lena, which will also have a Babe Ruth team this summer for the first time.

"That means a lot. I've got an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, and a four-year-old, and they're seeing that level of kids excited about baseball in Lena. That's awesome. That's big," Jahnke said.

Of Lena's 20 players, eight hadn't played organized baseball in over two years, Jahnke said. He had four freshmen in the ranks as well. With that in mind, he told his team early in the year that he didn't care what they looked like in April. He cared what they looked like on May 20.

"That's legitimately the Friday before we were starting our regional," Jahnke said. "We set goals, the coaches and I, of being a regional champ. We didn't show in conference what we should have, but the boys started to drink the Kool-Aid by the end to see what they can do."

Columbus Catholic went on to beat Rib Lake and advance to state.

"They're a nice team. They're good defensively, and they had some sticks that were pretty stellar," Jahnke said. "They're a nice ball team. That's it. We got beat by a good ball team."

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