By Steve Nielsen

Scouting Director

Stevens Point 4, Kenosha Bradford 2

APPLETON, WI - The final quarterfinal of the day looked on paper to be one of the better contests in the first round. Kenosha Bradford sent ace and Wisconsin-Milwaukee commit, hard throwing Kevin Tibor to the hill while SPASH countered with the crafty left Cal Giese, runs were going to be at a premium as both starters own sub 1.60 ERA's.

Giese struggled with his command in the first after walking two and loading the bases with one out. Junior center fielder Jon Barnes bailed Giese out with a diving catch in the gap that would eventually end up in a double play. The Panthers appealed that the runner at first had crossed second base and did not retouch second base before going back. After calling him out the Panthers limited the damage to just one.

Bradford scored again in the third with a RBI single by Jake Costabile, after a pair of walks.

The Panthers finally answered in the third, as the Red Devils became victims of their own mistakes. Two errors in the inning led to two runs along with an RBI single from Panther starting southpaw Cal Giese.

With the score knotted at two, both pitchers would bare down to work perfect frames in the fourth, and scoreless in the fifth.

Giese would come up clutch again for the Panthers leading off the sixth with a triple to the right center gap. Bradford was forced to bring their infield in and almost got out of it after TIbor induced two harmless ground balls on the infield. But senior shortstop Eric Zelhofer would not let Giese's leadoff triple go to waste as he roped a single up the middle to give Stevens Point a 3-2 lead.

SPASH added an insurance run in the seventh thanks to an RBI single by senior Sterling King.

Giese looked like he would finish what he started in the seventh striking out the first batter of the inning while still maintaining his 84 mph fastball. But after a walk and a base hit the Panther called on Austin Schulfer to get the final out. Schulfer put away junior first baseman Ty Jandrowski with a pair of tight 77 mph breaking balls to seal the deal for SPASH and earn them a date with Bay Port in tonight's Semifinal night cap.