Oconto Falls' baseball team ends regular season with win

Adler powers Panthers to victory
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

The Oconto Falls High School baseball team ended its regular season with a 3-1 victory over North Eastern Conference opponent Marinette on May 20 in Oconto Falls.

It was freshman Jack Adler who powered the Panthers to victory just a couple days after the team lost a road game to Marinette.

“It felt good because we had a tough loss against them whenever it was — I think it was Tuesday,” said Adler of the win. “It was a tough loss, so it was good to get out there and show it to them.”

Adler started on the mound and pitched 6⅔ innings. He struck out five batters while allowing just six baserunners to reach against him.

He said staying calm was how he was able to work his way through the Marinette lineup.

Adler struck out a pair of batters in a 1-2-3 first inning and then worked around a two-out walk in the second frame. The freshman righty struck out two more in another clean third inning.

The starting pitcher picked up all the run support he’d need in the bottom of the third.

Jake Sager started the inning with a single and then stole second base. Braden Vandermoss walked with one out, setting up a bizarre play with Cy Vizelka at the plate.

Vizelka hit a flyball to right field, so both Sager and Vandermoss tagged up. The confusion began when the right fielder wasn’t able to cleanly catch the ball, but nobody knew if he had completed the catch. Vizelka and Vandermoss both were standing at first base, as Sager advanced a couple bases and crossed home plate.

After the umpires met and talked things over, it was ruled to be no catch in right, so Vizelka was awarded first, Vandermoss was out at second base on a force play and Sager’s run counted.

The inning continued with a booming double from Logan Kramer, moving Vizelka to third. Adler then blooped a hit over the infield to plate Kramer and Vizelka to give the team a 3-0 advantage.

“At the start of the year, I was struggling at the plate, so it felt good to get some RBIs on varsity and then it gave me confidence on the mound, too, knowing I had insurance,” said Adler.

“To start the game, we didn’t have very much energy. I think after I led off, it kind of set the tempo and everybody’s like, ‘OK, we can score a couple runs here,’” said Sager of the three-run inning. “Steal second, there’s the weird play in right and we score a run and everybody is hyped, and then Jack gets a base hit over there and he’s getting hyped. I was like, ‘all right, we’re going to win this game.”

Adler walked a pair of batters with two outs in the fourth, but avoided any more trouble by inducing a groundball to end the frame. The freshman then worked another 1-2-3 frame in the fifth.

Marinette’s first hit off Adler came with one out in the sixth on a double. The runner later scored on a batted ball off a diving Sager’s glove. Adler kept the team’s lead at two after getting a groundout and popup.

With 91 pitches to start the seventh, Adler hoped to get the final three outs before reaching 100 pitches. He fell just short of that after hitting a batter and then getting a popup and flyout.

Sager came on in relief as Adler walked off the mound to a loud ovation from the Oconto Falls’ faithful.

Sager needed just one pitch to get a game-ending groundout.

“Well, we haven’t won a game in a good amount of games ,so to finally get the win brings positive vibes. Everybody is happier,” said Sager. “We’ve been playing better lately, but this really seals the deal on how we’ve been playing.”

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