Prep Baseball Report

WIAA State Tournament: D1 Semifinals



Sun Prairie 6
Arrowhead 5

The evening session kicked-off semifinal final action with a back and forth nail biter as Sun Prairie prevailed for a 6-5 win in 10 innings.

Fast forward to the seventh inning as the two teams knotted at 3-3 began the drama. Sun Prairie scored in the top of the seventh with two out and two on for Luke DePrey who drove a clean single to right giving the Cardinals a one run lead, 4-3.

Arrowhead answered with their own drama in the bottom half of the seventh. Luke Dubnicka led off the inning with a single. Moving his way up to third with two outs, Tanner Williams grounded into what looked like the game ending putout, but a bobble at second base allowed Williams to beat it out and score the tying run.

Both teams traded zeros until the tenth when Sun Prairie got a huge two-out, two-RBI double from Carson Holin giving the Cardinals a 6-4 lead. As Coach Hamilton called on freshman Joey Hauser to relieve Walker Jenkins who reached his pitch limit for the day, Arrowhead wasn’t quite finished yet. Luke Dubnicka came up big again with a two out double that drove in Matthew Brockish who reached on a two out error. After a walk to Blake Cottrell it set the table for Jeff Holtz to be the hero. With runners at first and second, down a run and the Warhawks best hitter at the plate, Hauser got Holtz to swing over the top of an 80 mph slider to send the Cardinals to Thursday’s title game.

 

Eau Claire North 1
Kimberly 2

After both teams showed offensive outbursts in the quarterfinal wins, their semifinal matchup was just the opposite. In a pitchers duel, sophomore John Nett (Kimberly) went the distance allowing just one run on five hits to the high powered Husky offense. On the other side of the mound, Ryan Venne and Tanner Halvorson both teamed up to allow just three hits but a pair of wild pitches proved to be the difference in this one.

Down a run in the third and after a Zach Lechnir double, Ryan Carney scored from third on a wild pitch from Venne. Three innings later the Papermakers did it again, this time Lechnir started it off with a single and moved to third on a John Nett double. With the squeeze on, Halvorson uncorked a wild one and Lechnir scored easy from third to give Kimberly a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Nett got finished what he started stranding the tying run at second in the seventh and sending the Papermakers to the championship game and a date with Sun Prairie on Thursday.

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