D1 Sectionals: Arrowhead marches past Oconomowoc, Sun Prairie to reach State again

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. – When the WIAA released the Sectional brackets, everyone’s eyes went to the same place: Sectional No. 6. It was a loaded group that featured heavyweights Arrowhead and Sun Prairie, as well as teams in the middle of great seasons like Beaver Dam and Watertown, and a traditional power like Oconomowoc that had scuffled in 2018.

But, at the end of the day, there was no surprise which two teams the Sectional crown came down to; it was either going to Arrowhead or Sun Prairie, the teams ranked No. 1 and 2 on our own Power 25. And Arrowhead, behind the solid pitching of Davis Zeutzius, came away with the title and are headed to State yet again, ending the Cardinals’ hopes at redeeming themselves from last season’s second-place finish in the tournament.

GAME ONE: OCONOMOWOC VS. ARROWHEAD

In the first game, the Raccoons got on the board quickly with a first-inning RBI double off the bat of Karsen Rupnow, smashed into the left field corner. Arrowhead starter Jacob Johnson did well to keep Oconomowoc from adding to their early lead. He struck out Hunter Olson and got his counterpart Jackson Brown to fly out to left to end the threat.

The Warhawks retaliated hastily. Luke Dubnicka singled up the middle and Nic Wohlfiel was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch, setting the table for their slugger Jeff Holtz. He just missed hammering a breaking ball, but it was still plenty deep enough to score Dubnicka from third on a sacrifice fly to right center. Bryce Toussaint followed Holtz up with a hard base hit to left that scored Wohlfiel and handed his team its first lead of the day, 2-1.

Arrowhead scored two more in the second on a two-out hustle triple from lead-off hitter Chandler Pulvermacher, taking a 4-3 lead.

Oconomowoc didn’t let the lead get out of hand though. They quickly responded with a pair of runs in the third to fight back. Gavin Daniel, who walked to start the inning, eventually scored on another RBI single from Rupnow, who also came around to score on Brown’s sac fly to left, cutting the deficit to 4-3.

Then, in the fourth, wild pitches scored two more Arrowhead runs. Those runs felt like a lethal blow to Oconomowoc’s chances at an upset seeing as they both came with two away as the Raccoons nearly got out of a dicey situation unfazed. The Raccoons didn’t really threaten to score again until the seventh when they got a run back and actually put the go-ahead run on first base. But Arrowhead reliever Derek Polczynski put out the small fire and pushed the Warhawks past Oconomowoc, 6-4, for a spot in the title game later that day.

GAME TWO: HARTFORD UNION VS. SUN PRAIRIE

These two teams deployed their aces for the chance to play Arrowhead for the Sectional title later in the afternoon. Hartford sent its senior lefty and Concordia commit Zach Lutz to the mound while Sun Prairie called upon their hard-throwing righty Taylor Jansen, who’s committed to Madison College.

The Cardinals opened the scoring in the first inning on Ty Hamilton’s two-out RBI single after Carson Holin singled and stole second. Meanwhile, Jansen was working pretty efficiently in the first and second frames. He pitched over a lead-off single the first and a a lead-off error in the second to keep the game 1-0 in his team’s favor.

But in the third, Jansen couldn’t get his way out of the first two batters getting on. Nick Vogel walked and Jake Weston bunted for a single up the third baseline to start Hartford’s best run-scoring opportunity yet. A sacrifice bunt from Myles Zimdars moved the two to second and third but Jansen struck out Scott Savage on four pitches for the second out of the inning. In stepped Blake Lazaris who pulled a single hard through the hole at third and short, scoring both baserunners and vaulted the Orioles into the lead, 2-1.

Sun Prairie responded in the bottom of the inning with two runs of their own. After two quick outs, Lutz walked Hamilton and Luke DePrey and Kyle Connell’s soft single to left tied the game up, 2-2. A four-pitch walk to Liam Moreno loaded the bases and a balk brought home the go-ahead run and then, finally, Lutz was able to notch the third out of the inning.

The Cardinals added another two runs in the fourth on another Hamilton run-scoring single and an error by reliever George Trawitzki. DePrey singled home Sun Prairie’s sixth run in the sixth inning to cap their day’s scoring.

After Jansen gave up those two third-inning runs, he settled in and dodged the little trouble he was in the rest of the way. He made it through unscathed after a lead-off walk and base hit from Zach Brewer in the fourth – and that would become the last hit Hartford tallied. Jansen cruised the rest of the way and finished an out shy of a complete game after maxing out his pitch count.

The 6-2 win set up a battle between two of the top teams in the state, Arrowhead and Sun Prairie, in the final game of the day from Roosevelt Field.

GAME THREE: SUN PRAIRIE VS. ARROWHEAD

The Cardinals captured the first lead of the ballgame off Arrowhead’s junior starter Davis Zeutzius in the top of the first. Zeutzius got the first two batters out, but back-to-back two-out walks cost him. Yet another RBI single from Ty Hamilton gifted the Cardinals the early 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the first, Arrowhead seriously threatened to score off Sun Prairie’s Jack Zander, their other hard-throwing righty. Luke Dubnicka walked with one out and he made it to third on Colin Wohlfiel’s base hit to shallow right. Jeff Holtz stood in the batters box and softly grounded a ball up the third baseline to Sun Prairie’s Bennet Halblieb who caught Dubnicka leaning too far off third base. Dubnicka raced home where he was comfortably beaten by the throw and the senior initiated a collision at the plate that forced the home plate umpire to eject him from the game. The momentum appeared to totally sway back toward Sun Prairie after Zander struck out Bryce Toussaint, escaping the grueling first frame with their 1-0 lead intact.

The Warhawks didn’t let that 1-0 deficit last long though. In their next turn at the plate, Alex Tanke led the half inning off with a base hit to left. An immediate sac bunt moved him to second. Joey Bartolone, the next batter, was hit by the first pitch he saw and it set up a long double over the right fielder’s head off the bat of Jacob Johnson. The double scored both baserunners and put Arrowhead into the lead. Chandler Pulvermacher singled up the middle in the following at-bat to score the Warhawks’ third run.

A scoreless third led to a Sun Prairie run in the fourth on Halblieb’s single to center, but the 3-2 score stayed put until the bottom of the sixth while starters Zeutzius and Zander began to take control.

Arrowhead totally blew it open in the sixth though when errors and wild pitches plated the first three runs of the frame for the Warhawks. With a runner of first, Jeff Holtz hammered a homer to left to give Arrowhead a 8-2 lead late. The Cardinals got one back in the seventh but their season ended there, taking a loss from Arrowhead, 8-3.

Head coach Nick Brengosz and the Warhawks will get another shot at State in 2018 after making it to last season’s State semifinals. They’ll play Burlington on Tuesday in the State quarterfinals.

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