WBA 35 & OLDER STATE - Back-to-back state titles for Reds thanks to extra-inning win
WBA 35 & OLDER STATE
Twelve hits through seven innings produced only one run and forced the Whittlesey Reds to play an extra inning Sunday, but in the eighth, the dam finally burst on the La Crosse 35ers in the Wisconsin Baseball Association’s 35 and older championship game.
Whittlesey scored six runs in the top of the eighth on six more hits to secure a 7-3 win and clinch the Reds’ second straight state title. The Reds combined timely hitting with strong pitching and defense to go 4–0 while hosting last weekend’s nine-team tournament with Rib Lake.
The Interwald Woodticks were also part of the tournament and reached the semifinals, but La Crosse beat them twice to knock them out, including a 1-0 win in pool play Friday night and then a 10-0, five-inning rout in Sunouts. day’s semifinal.
Whittlesey beat Chippewa Falls 6-3 on Friday and then worked out of a number of early jams to beat Mellen 5-3 on Saturday to win its three-team pool and earn the twoseed in Sunday’s semifinals.
The Reds blew out Tilden 13-1 to advance to the title game against the 35ers. Those two teams played an outstanding defensive game up until the extra inning.
On three occasions, Whittlesey had runners tagged out on home plate on outstanding throws from La Crosse’s defense. Ryan Hubacek was thrown out by leftfielder Chad Blumenstein while trying to score from second base on Brandon Loertscher’s first-inning single. Loertscher hit into a double play to end a bases-loaded threat in the top of the third. Blumenstein cut down Thomas Mildbrand in the fifth when he tried to score on Matt Witter’s bases-loaded fly ball with no Now with two down, Loertscher followed with a game-tying RBI double to deep right, but the relay throw from first baseman Eric Check got Hubacek as he tried to score from first base.
Whittlesey came up with a couple of big plays as well, including a diving stab and then throw to first by shortstop Lucas Kraschnewski on a second-inning grounder hit by Art Karanza, a diving catch by Hubacek in rightfield to rob Bob Heiderscheit of a potential run-scoring hit in the bottom of the fourth and a sliding catch by Ryan Kraschnewski in centerfield to take a leadoff hit away from Josh Gates in the sixth.
Using the Major League extra-inning rule where a runner opens the inning at second base, Whittlesey quickly went to work in the top of the eighth. Jeff Kraschnewski singled, moving Loertscher to third. After Andy Guden’s tapper to the mound for the first out, La Crosse intentionally walked Ben Meyer to load the bases. Pinch hitter Judd Hraby wasted no time, bouncing the first pitch he saw from Tom Oldenburg to left to drive in the goahead run. La Crosse got the second out at home on Mildbrand’s fielder’s choice, but Josh Shere’s double to deep center cleared the bases and Witter and Loertscher added RBI singles to more than offset Matt Zeba’s tworun homer in the bottom half.
Shawn Schultz pitched all eight innings for Whittlesey, allowing seven hits.
Interwald reached the semifinals as the fourth seed thanks to a 9-1 win over River Falls on Saturday. The Woodticks scored five runs in the third, including a two-run single by Matt Jensen and a two-run homer by Craig Scheithauer. Four runs in the sixth gave the Woodticks the edge they needed in the rundifferential tiebreaker to get semifinal spot over Strum and Mellen.
