WIAA State Tournament: Day 2
June 12, 2019
Today, Wednesday, June 12, marks semifinal action for Divisions 2-4 at the WIAA state baseball tournament. Day Two consists of the the final four teams in each of the Division 2, 3 and 4, starting the day with Division 4 action and finishing it off with D-4. Below, we’re compiling the game recaps for each of the day’s six games.
This post will update throughout the day.
Division-4 Semifinals
No. 8 Webster – 4
Athens – 3
GRAND CHUTE, WI - D4 Semifinal action started a wet Day 2 of the WIAA State Tournament. No.8 Webster took on Athens, both teams defending state champs as Webster won the D3 title last year, and Athens taking the D4 crown.
The Tigers sent Hunter Rosenbaum to the mound, who has yet to give up an earned run all year. The Fighting Blue Jays changed that in the fourth when Javon Penney ripped a double over he centerfielders head, scoring the first Athens run of the game.
Rosenbaum, a West Virginia commit, is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound right-hander who showed mid to upper 80’s velocity topping at 88 mph. His breaking ball showed swing and miss action and a confident ability to throw it in any count.
Webster padded their lead in the sixth, but Athens quickly answered, keeping it a one-run deficit for the Blue Jays.
That set the stage for RHP Jack Washburn to come in a close it out. Washburn, an Oregon State commit, walked the leadoff batter, but a slick double play turned by younger brother Owen Washburn with a barehanded transfer, extinguished any Athens rally. Washburn notched the save with a lively fastball at 87-89 mph, and flashed a hard breaking ball at 79-80 mph.
Hunter Rosenbaum and 3B Coleton Peterson finished with three hits a piece to lead the Tigers offense, each driving in a run.
Belmont – 2
No. 22 Mineral Point – 6
GRAND CHUTE, WI - Mineral Point set the stage for a highly anticipated D-4 Championship game with a 6-2 win over Belmont. Both Mineral Point and Webster are undefeated on the season and will meet up on Thursday for the state’s first title matchup of the day.
Mineral Point sent sophomore RHP Liam Stumpf to the mound. Stumpf ranged 80-84 in the first inning, touching 85 mph, but reached his pitch limit after five innings of work. Stumpf allowed just one unearned run and struck out 11 of his 15 outs.
Stumpf lead the Pointers offense as well, sending a towering home run over the left field wall in the third, and drove in two more insurance runs in the sixth with a two RBI triple.
Riley Christensen (Belmont) is a sophomore catcher to keep an eye on. Christensen had a two-hit day including a big double to left center and consistently found the barrel, against some tough pitching by Stumpf.
Division-3 Semifinals
Boyceville – 5
Stratford – 7
A couple of separate Stratford rallies ensures that the Tigers are headed to the Division-3 title game on Thursday, where they’ll play the winner of the Markesan-Ozaukee contest later today.
The Tigers’ offense got to work right away in the bottom of the first, scoring four quick runs with the help of RBI singles from Dawson Moen and Riley Bauman. The game had the look, and feel, like Stratford was dialed in with the potential to pull away early, but Boyceville made sure that wasn’t the case.
The Bulldogs countered right away in the top of the second with a three-run inning of their own, helped along by a Stratford error in the infield that helped score a run and set up Boyceville to add a couple more. And in the third, the Bulldogs’ Jacob Granley singled home the tying run to bring his squad back even.
By this point, both teams were forced to dive into their bullpen, and both teams’ relievers settled things down. Zeroes followed for the next three innings, until Stratford took back the lead for good in the sixth. Bauman, again, came through with a timely double that plated the team’s go-ahead run. Mav Licciardi grounded a single through the middle of the infield to add to the lead and the Tigers fended off the Bulldogs’ efforts from there.
Ozaukee – 0
Markesan – 10
We all trudged through a six-plus-hour rain delay, lasting from roughly 3 p.m. to 9:15, that cost us the day’s Division-2 semifinals, but Ozaukee and Markesan were still able to sneak in the last of the D-3 semis. Unfortunately for the Warriors, the long delay seemed to zap their energy and their bats went cold amidst the wet and brisk evening.
It didn’t help that they needed to face Central Michigan-bound righty Shane Ryan, either. The senior tossed a five-inning no-hitter, striking out 12 and walking three in the overwhelming 10-0 win. He even chipped in on offense, barreling a deep triple to right-center, scoring a run.
Ryan and Ozaukee’s Brent Hoffmann dueled a near-spotless couple of innings out of the gate, but the Hornets quickly caught up with the junior right-hander in the third. Wild pitches helped plate a couple of runs in the inning, a bases-loaded walk did, too, and Ryan’s triple came in this frame as well. Though Hoffmann put himself into some hot water, he didn’t get much help defensively, either. By the end of the half-inning, Markesan erupted to put an 8-0 lead on Ozaukee.
After Ryan had walked a batter to lead off the third, he wouldn’t allow another baserunner the rest of the way, punching out seven of the last nine batters he faced.
Four hits and another Ozaukee error helped Markesan reapply the pressure, making it a 10-0 ballgame – each Hornet who took the plate earned a hit on the evening. And all of a sudden, the Warriors had three outs to score a run to keep their season alive. Ryan was completely settled in here, and he retired the side in order to earn his team a berth in Thursday’s D-3 title game, where they’ll play Stratford.
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