Menomonee Falls sees season end

MADISON – Menomonee Falls’ state championship dreams came to an end Friday.

Sun Prairie senior Skylar Muller’s three-run triple in the ninth inning broke open a back-and-forth Division 1 state semifinal, providing the Cardinals with their final margin of victory in a 9-5 victory over Falls. The game was played at Madison College’s Goodman Field because a weather delay backed up the schedule at the University of Wisconsin’s Goodman Diamond.

The Cardinals (28-0) will face the winner of the Burlington-Slinger semifinal in the title game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Falls finished 22-5.

Before Muller’s shot to right field, Sun Prairie took the lead on a basesloaded grounder by senior Katie Tews that Falls freshman shortstop Kady Stigler knocked down but couldn’t fully gather.

That run gave the Cardinals a 6-5 edge. Muller’s hit pushed the lead to four.

It was bitter end for Falls, which was two outs away from winning the title game berth when things began to unravel.

The team was leading Sun Prairie by a run and senior pitcher Kenzie Poetzel was on a roll, having sent down 14 straight hitters.

However, Sun Prairie’s Rachel Jackson ended that streak with a line-drive single to center that got past the outfielder, a misplay that helped Jackson come all the way around to score on the play. That two-base error allowed her to reach third and a throwing error on the leftfielder allowed her to come home with a dramatic game-tying run.

The Cardinals continued to apply the pressure from there.

In the top of the eighth, they took a 5-4 lead on a sacrifice fly by senior Erin Vertz. Falls was on the brink of elimination, but in the bottom of the inning junior Emma Neale’s two-out single brought home senior Cami Stigler with the tying run.

The next time, however, Falls couldn’t come back.

Sun Prairie put runners on first and second with one out in the ninth. Eventually it loaded the bases. That set the stage for Vertz to reach on what was ruled an error and bring in the go-ahead run. Muller took care of the rest with the bases-clearing triple that sealed the victory.