Pulaski punches ticket to state

Despite the 16U and 17U tournaments taking place over the weekend, you also had varsity Legion regionals getting underway as a trio of local teams aimed to continue their season for at least one more week. Not all of the results were the best, but there were some great showings including in AA where Pulaski punched their ticket to the state tournament next weekend in Ashwaubenon following a pair of impressive games Saturday.

The weekend didn’t get off to the best start for Pulaski as they were pegged against Kewaunee County to open things up. The Lakers would go on to flex their muscles in that game as they took down Pulaski 6-2 and put them on the brink of going home. Despite that disappointing showing to open the week, coach Jack Anderson was pleased with what he saw from the players.

“It was a tough one for us on Friday, but we did get some good outings on the mound,” he said. “Hunter Money and Jace Olson did what they had to do against a very good hitting Kewaunee team. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize with runners on base, which can’t happen.”

Perhaps a game against Reedsville would be the game they needed to get back on track as they defeated them 11-1 earlier this season. As expected, this game was vastly different from their first meeting, but it was the pitching that held up once again as Pulaski lived to see another day, winning 2-1 and setting up a rematch with Kewaunee for a trip to state on the line.

With Ashwaubenon hosting state, all Pulaski needed to do was defeat the Lakers to clinch a spot in the championship game and their dream of state would become a reality. Led by Tate Gerth on the mound, Pulaski did just that as they got their revenge against Kewaunee and took them down 5-3 to clinch a spot in the state tournament.

“We got a really great outing from Tate today when we needed it the most,” Anderson said. “Unlike the first game against them where we struggled to drive guys in, we had several great at bats from the top down throughout the lineup. That helped us grab an early lead, and we were able to maintain that lead before adding on late.”

Pulaski took on the Ashwaubenon A’s for the regional championship on Sunday morning and fell 5-0. Pulaski will face the winner of the River Falls regional at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Wittenberg

Pulaski wasn’t the only team to put forth a great weekend as the Wittenberg varsity squad hosted its own regional at the A Ball level and was looking to join their 16U in state. In what may have been one of the more exciting regionals of the weekend, Wittenberg opened up its weekend with an intense battle with Crandon where they came out on top 10-8.

Down 4-0 after the first inning, Wittenberg got two of those runs back in the top half of the second, but it was in the fourth inning when they took the lead for good as they used a seven-run frame to take a 9–5 lead before holding off Crandon in the end.

Keegan Schmid opened up the inning with an RBI single before Mason Meverden added a second single later on. Throw in a bases-loaded double from Owen Dickman, and Wittenberg stormed in front 7-5. They weren’t done there as four bases-loaded walks led to two more runs in that inning before they had to hold off a thunderous Crandon rally late in the game.

As if that game wasn’t exciting enough to kick off the weekend, Wittenberg found themselves in a tight contest with Marathon only to pick up a run in the final inning to secure the 3-2 victory. That put them in a position to reach the regional final should they figure out a way to defeat a dominant Stratford team.

Despite their best efforts on Saturday, the Tigers were too much as Wittenberg suffered the 5-3 loss and was put back in a win or go home matchup with Marathon on Sunday.

Unfortunately for Wittenberg, their season would end there as Marathon got revenge from earlier in the weekend with a dominating 10-1 win. Wittenberg closes out their season with a 8-9 record as they came within one win of reaching the regional championship game.

Bonduel

While those two teams had plenty of success over the weekend, Bonduel didn’t as it went 0-2 in Denmark to see its season come to a close. Friday was an especially painful loss for the Grizzlies as Niagara put together a pair of four-run innings to pick up the easy 9-2 win. The first of those innings came in the first as Bonduel didn’t do themselves any favors.

Not only did walks kill Jayden Stuhr on the mound, but he also hit a few batters as command was an issue early. That was followed by several well-struck balls and a series of errors as Niagara opened up a 4-0 lead before the Grizzlies even came to bat. Bonduel got one of those runs back in the bottom of the first as Easton Reinke was hit by a pitch with two outs before advancing to second on the Noah Weier single. The very next batter was Colin Margelofsky whose single up the middle drove home Reinke to make things 4-1.

Despite Niagara adding an additional run in the top half of the third, the Grizzlies managed to answer once more as a pair of singles led things off ahead of the Weier sacrifice fly to make things 5-2. That was as close as the Grizzlies would get as Niagara used another four-run inning late in the game to pull away 9-2.

Bonduel would see their season come to an end on Saturday as they fell to the Wrightstown Rockets 4-3. What makes this loss even tougher to stomach is the fact that the Grizzlies came out strong and scored all three of their runs in the first to grab an early lead. Reinke opened the scoring with an RBI single while a pair of sacrifice flies led to all three runs for the Grizzlies.

Like Bonduel, the Wrightstown offense got off to a great start, scoring one time in the first and then three more in the second as they made that 4-3 lead hold to end the Grizzlies season.

“It just wasn’t our weekend,” coach Jeremy Reinke said. “There were times when we played well as a team, but for the most part, we were outplayed. You can’t make the amount of mistakes we made in that first game and expect to be here for a long time.”