Prep Baseball Report

D1 Quarterfinals: Janesville Craig tallies 13 hits to fly by King


By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. – After a scoreless first frame, Janesville Craig scored at least a run in the next five frames while starter Micah Overley limited Milwaukee King to just two hits in his six innings of work. Craig’s lead-off hitter Dan Blomgren spurred the Cougars offense all game long, highlighted by his inside-the-park home run to start the fifth inning.

Going back to the second inning, Craig scored the game’s first run after Noah Berghammer lined a double down the left field line, eventually coming around to score on Clark Schmaling’s sacrifice fly to right field. Jacob Hesseling’s single between King’s second and first basemen plated the Cougars’ second run of the inning.

Craig never looked back.

After walking the first batter he faced in the game, Overley retired the next seven in order and didn’t allow a hit until Tomas Pinet’s fourth-inning double the actually landed near the warning track over the left fielder Ross March’s head. Unfortunately for the King Generals, the double came with two away and Overley was able to escape the brief trouble with the strikeout of Keshun Nelson.

Two more runs came home to score for Craig in the third inning after Blomgren started the inning with a hard hit single to right-center field. Both Luke Malmanger and Tressin Kussmaul smoked line drives directly into center field that combined to bring in Blomgren. In the fourth, March’s grounder through the left side of the infield scored Schmaling from second, making it 5-0 at the time. The aforementioned inside-the-park homer led off the next inning on Blomgren’s liner that had the center and right fielders chasing the ball all the way to the wall in the deepest part of the park. And finally, in the sixth, Schmaling’s double to the left-center gap scored one and Blomgren’s single up the middle scored Craig’s eighth and final run of the ballgame.

All the while, Overley stymied King’s bats. He finished his outing after six shutout frames and allowed just two hits, two walks, and struck out five.

Pinet singled off reliever Jacob Faust in the seventh to tally his second hit of the day, the team’s third. He and his brother Nata reached base three times in the game – Nata was the one who led off the bottom of the first with a walk – the rest of King’s lineup reached base just two times combined.

The sound victory carries Craig to this evening’s semifinals where they’ll play Arrowhead to determine which team will be playing for Thursday’s D-1 title. The game will begin at approximately 8:45 p.m.

RELATED CONTENT