Defense, pitching drive Post 147’s two state wins

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

With just one error in 15 innings to begin play in the Wisconsin American Legion Class AA state tournament at Ashwaubenon, it was only fitting for Medford’s Post 147 squad to clinch a 2-0 start Saturday night with a defensive gem.

Parker Lissner’s diving stab of a low liner that appeared headed to left field turned into a double play, got Medford out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top of the seventh inning and ended a tightlycontested 3-1 win over the Post 121 squad from River Falls.

Playing third base, Lissner drove to his left to spear the shot off the bat of number-nine hitter Cal Usgaard. With both River Falls runners thinking Usgaard had a hit, Lissner had an easy throw to second baseman Tanner Hraby to double off runner Eli Condon, who had drawn a leadoff walk, to end it.

“It was fun,” Lissner said. “Nothing I can really say. I was just trying to make a good play for my team. The play happened and there you go. Our defense played amazing tonight.”

“Parker Lissner made one of the best plays I have seen to end a game,” Medford head coach Justin Hraby said. “A great diving catch and doubling off the runner to do so. Wow!”

While three of the game’s four runs were unearned, it was defensive/pitching- minded beauty, coming on the heels of Medford’s 4-2 opening-round, eight-inning win over New London that took two days to complete due to rain.

Logan Baumgartner got the win in relief in the New London game and, after throwing 32 pitches Saturday morning, he had 73 to spare that night against River Falls. He was brilliant using all 73 to pitch six complete innings, allowing an unearned first-inning run and just three hits. Two of those hits came in the opening inning. Baumgartner got stronger as the game went on, finishing with eight strikeouts, one hit batter and no walks allowed.

“Logan was at his best,” Hraby said. “Besides the Mosinee game this year (a 4-1 win during the high school season), that was probably the best game I have ever seen him pitch. He was very efficient while being dominant at the same time. He did all that against a very good lineup.”

“I kinda figured once I threw about 30 pitches (against New London), I was coming back tonight,” Baumgartner said after the win. “I was just trying to stay loose. At the beginning of the game, you never know how that’s going to feel. Then once you get into a groove, just keep throwing and trusting the defense.”

In the sixth, Baumgartner had nine pitches left and mowed down River Falls’ Henry Zimmermann, Austin Curti and Tyler Nelson with a strikeout, a comebacker and a groundout to keep the game 2-1 at the time.

In the bottom of the sixth, Medford’s Braxton Weissmiller and Max Dietzman drew walks from Nelson, Weissmiller beat the throw to third on Nick Steliga’s sacrifice bunt to load the bases and Ty Metz bounced a key single to left for a big insurance run.

“I knew I had nine pitches,” Baumgartner said of the sixth inning. “I had eight pitches to get the first two guys out and then I had the last hitter to myself, but I was able to do it in less than that. It worked out.”

Medford trailed 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Weissmiller got Medford’s second hit of the game and it was a big one as he finally hit one deep to the gap in right-center for a double. Dietzman walked and after a Steliga groundout left runners at second and third, both scored when the throw on a bouncer hit by Metz got by River Falls first baseman Cody Olson.

“We didn’t hit all that well, but were able to take advantage of their mistakes to score our runs,” Justin Hraby said.

Whether it was the wind, heavy air with Ashwaubomay Park being right along the Fox River or something else, it seemed the balls hit to the outfield weren’t carrying Friday and Saturday until Weissmiller’s double.

“We’ve all been saying that,” Baumgartner said. “It feels dead.”

“I feel like Braxton’s hit, that would’ve been crushed somewhere else,” Lissner said.

Steliga got the call to try to close it out in the top of the seventh. After walking Condon, Olson popped out to Hraby, but catcher Colton Maves laced a single to left to bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate in Usgaard. But Lissner’s play quickly put an end to any late heroics River Falls had in mind. Not only did Medford win its first game of the tournament for the first time in its four state appearances since 2018, this win put Post 147 at 2-0 for the first time and put the championship round appearance within reach. “It feels great,” Lissner said. “Especially with this group,” Baumgartner added. “This group is amazing. We’re going to have a lot of fun over the next two days.” Logan Kawa, Medford’s number-nine hitter, had two of the team’s four hits off Nelson, who pitched all six innings for River Falls, striking out four and walking four.

Extra-inning win

Post 147 left Ashwaubomay Park on Friday evening trailing the New London Clippers 2-0 in the top of the sixth inning, having a potential rally suspended by the game’s second rain delay and not really sure where it stood from a pitching standpoint knowing a third hurler, if not more, would be needed to finish the contest Saturday morning.

It all worked out in the end. Medford got two runs out of that potential rally against a new New London pitcher to tie the game, got the lead in the top of the eighth and Baumgartner efficiently needed just 32 pitches to get through the last three innings in a 4-2 win.

“That was nuts. That was crazy,” Weissmiller said after the game finally ended. “It was kind of a bummer. We kinda wished we could’ve just finished the game yesterday with a runner on third because we knew we were going to cash in Parker no matter what. We were pretty confident in our bats.”

“It maybe wasn’t ideal but all three pitchers didn’t throw that many pitches,” Steliga said. They can still pitch today or have just a day’s rest, so I don’t think it screwed it up a ton.”

Weissmiller and Steliga had winning hits in the top of the eighth. After Lissner led off with a walk against reliever Tommy Fields and Baumgartner’s single pushed Lissner to third. Weissmiller’s base hit up the middle scored Lissner. Jonah Schlueter took over for Fields and Dietzman drove his first pitch to centerfield, moving Baumgartner to third. Steliga then pulled a double down the leftfield line.

“I sat fastball,” Weissmiller said. “He threw two curveballs. One was over my head and then one was way away. I know the curveball was not working for him today. I saw fastball and swung hard.”

“I was trying to see because this was a new pitcher and Max only saw one pitch, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Steliga said. “So I was just trying to sit fastball and just hit the ball hard somewhere, not try to do too much because we only had one out. I was just trying to poke one out there just to score that extra guy.”

The two-day rally in the sixth started with raindrops falling and a Lissner single. He went to second on an errant pickoff throw and to third on a wild pitch. Baumgartner had a 2-2 count against New London starter Ethan Hertzfeldt when the umpires stopped play. After a short delay, tournament officials decided to halt play for the day.

Fields finished the at-bat Saturday morning and walked Baumgartner. After Weissmiller grounded out, Dietzman punched a single the opposite way to left to score Baumgartner. Fields avoided further damage by getting two strikeouts. Both teams went down in order over the last inning and a half to send the game to extra innings, with New London turning a double play to face the minimum in the seventh.

Metz started for Medford and had 43 pitches when play was stopped in the middle of the third inning. New London scored twice on sacrifice flies in the bottom of the second, which were preceded by a walk and a Hertzfeldt double. Metz threw one pitch after a 95-minute rain delay and got a fly ball out. By staying under 45 pitches, Metz was able to pitch again on Sunday.

Hraby took over from there and pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, also in under 45 pitches, allowing him to be available Sunday, if needed.

Hertzfeldt showed a good fastball and curveball while shutting out Medford through five innings. Post 147 had four hits in the first two innings and six overall against him.

“He was nothing to sleep on,” Weissmiller said. “He was definitely a pitcher. His fastball was pretty good and he mixed in his curveball well.”

“He definitely mixed a lot,” Steliga added. “Usually you can tell with guys, they’ll always throw first-pitch curveballs. He really mixed it well. So we just sat fastball and looked to adjust.”

Medford finished with 11 hits. Steliga, Baumgartner and Carson Carbaugh had two apiece.

“The boys did a great job of weathering the weather,” coach Hraby said. “We had to burn up Ty and Tanner on Friday night, but were able to make sure we had both on Sunday. Logan came in Saturday morning and shut them down in his three innings to help us get the round one win. Max Dietzman and Braxton Weissmiller came through in the clutch and Nick Steliga had a big RBI double to give us an insurance run.”

Logan Kawa gets a good jump and steals second base during the third inning of Saturday’s 3-1 win over River Falls Post 121.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS