WBA REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS - Bay City’s Vogel gets Whittlesey hitters off-balance in 1-0 Sunday upset
WBA REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS
As host of the Wisconsin Baseball Association’s B Division Finals, the Whittlesey Reds also hoped to be playing in this weekend’s tournament.
Those hopes, however, were dashed Sunday by the Bay City Bombers and pitcher Logan Vogel, whose steady diet of off-speed pitches kept the Reds off-balance throughout in a surprising 1-0 final at the WBA’s Glidden regional.
Whittlesey was the one-seed in its threeteam grouping and put itself in position to win the pool and earn a spot in the Finals with an 11-1 seven-inning win over the Iron City Miners Friday night in Park Falls. Bay City, the third seed in the pool, beat Iron City in a 13-11 slugfest Saturday, making Sunday’s matchup a winner-take-all matchup.
The Bombers got their run in the second inning on a double, a sacrifice bunt and a single. That was all it took to give Reds’ starter Nick Retterath a tough-luck loss. Retterath threw 103 pitches and got into the eighth inning. The Bombers finished with just five hits and struck out nine times.
Vogel, though, limited Whittlesey to six hits and picked up four strikeouts. Both teams only drew two walks. Whittlesey did not commit an error. Good defense by Bay City, the inability to get some bunts down and get the key hit that cost the Reds, who were seeking their first trip to a WBA Finals event since 2015.
Good pitching also slowed Whittlesey down for the first half of Friday’s win. The Reds were no-hit through the first five innings by Iron City’s Marcus Kruzan, but they still were able to forge a 2-0 lead in that time. When Kruzan gave way to a reliever in the sixth, the Reds got one run in that inning and batted around in an eight-run seventh to put the game away.
Just the opposite of Vogel, Kruzan is a hard thrower who Whittlesey’s Dan Kraschnewski said was probably hitting 90 mph. Kruzan, an Ashland High School graduate, pitches at the University of St. Thomas. Kruzan had eight strikeouts. The Reds were able to take advantage of his slow delivery and a high school catcher to steal bases whenever they did get runners and were able to push a couple of them across to take the lead.
Nick Meyer got the win for Whittlesey, pitching into the eighth and notching eight strikeouts. Spike Alexander finished up and added a punchout. They combined to allow just five hits. Luke Zakovec and Gavin Delich had two hits apiece for the Miners.
Whittlesey finished with seven hits. Parker Lissner was the Red with multiple hits, going two for four.
Bay City will open WBA play against topseeded Rib Lake on the Osprey’s home field Friday at 7 p.m.
