By Steve Nielsen & Matt Huck
PBR Wisconsin Scouting Staff

Over the next few weeks in addition to highlighting the Top 10 Player Profiles of 2016, we will also highlight the Top 10 Stories in Wisconsin High School Baseball during 2016.

We kick off the the Top Ten Stories of 2016 with:
#10 - 2016 Badger State Battle Tournament

The Badger State Battle, in its second year, draws in the top teams and players from the state of Wisconsin. The reason this makes our top ten stories of the year is simply statistical. The recap blog from the event was the most clicked on story of the year with over 3,000 reads for that story alone.

For more on the 2017 Badger State Battle > CLICK HERE.

With some weather moving through the area during the event we were not able to crown a true champion, but Rawlings Hitters Navy 17u and GRB Rays Green 16u both finished pool play undefeated at 4-0 to share the best record.

2016 PBR+ Badger State Tournament: Game Recaps

2016 PBR+ Badger State Tournament: Scout Blog

The premier game of the event took place on Friday night at Marian University when Rawlings Hitters Navy 17u squared off with the GRB Rays 17u. Here is the game story:

Rawlings Hitters Navy 4 GRB Rays 2

The highly anticipated matchup of Hitters and GRB did not disappoint on Friday night with Hitters edging out a victory over GRB 4-2 at Marian.

Hitters starter Jacob Lindemann and Rays starter Dillion Nowicki bot showed premium stuff in their outings. Lindemann worked five innings allowing just one hit and inducing a lot of groundball outs. The Rays got on the board in the top of the third when Stephen Lund singled to leadoff the inning, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and moved to third on a wild pitch. After a hit by pitch, Walker Jenkins grounded out to short binging in Lund with the first run of the game.

Through the first four innings Nowicki allowed just two hits while striking out five. In the bottom of the fifth Hitters broke through scoring four times to take a 4-2 lead. Zion Pettigrew worked a walk to leadoff the inning, Evan Spry hit a comebacker to Nowicki which was thrown into centerfield. Pat Sisk came up and delivered an RBI single to centerfield to tie the game at one, Alex Rodriguez then singled to load the bases with nobody out. With the infield in Dain Hudson hit a chopper to third and the throw home was in the dirt allowing Spry to score the go ahead run.

Mitchell Buban came up and hit another chopper to third, this time Pat Sisk was forced at home with the first out of the inning. Leadoff man Trey Leonard had a swinging bunt down the first base line that stayed fair to allow Rodriguez and Hudson to score. On the same play Buban was cut down trying to advance to third and Leonard was also out when he was caught too far off of first base.

After taking the lead Jarred Kelenic came out of the pen working mostly 92 mph with his fastball and had a three up three down inning (Video below). Jacob Schellpfeffer came in relief of Nowicki in the bottom of the sixth and after a leadoff double by Jarred Kelenic he struck out the side to keep the score 4-1.

The Rays made things interesting in the top of the seventh when with two away Jeff Holtz came thru with an RBI double to cut the lead to 4-2. After a Jarrett Fueger walk brought the go ahead run to the plate, Kelenic settled in and caught Alan Roden looking to the end game.

Top Ten Stories of 2016