Cougars send young Generals to early exit

GRAND CHUTE - Milwaukee King’s first state baseball tournament appearance in 15 years was a short-lived one thanks to Janesville Craig.

Cougars starting pitcher Micah Overley threw six shutout innings and his team’s offense put the Generals away with a steady flow of big hits in an 8-0 quarterfinal win at Neuroscience Group Field on Tuesday night.

“It’s an excellent team we were up against,” King head coach Tom Wozniak said. “We threw everything that we had at them and it just wasn’t enough today. Hats off to them.”

Craig faced Arrowhead in the semifinals later Tuesday night. The game ended too late for this edition.

Generals starting pitcher Jacob Myer faced a tall task in Craig (23-5), which has had four of its losses on the year come by one run and averaged over 10 runs per game coming in.

“Those guys, they mash the ball,” Wozniak said.

Following a scoreless first inning, the Cougars bats found their stride.

Clark Schmaling opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly and Jacob Hesseling followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0 after two innings. The Cougars added another pair in the third as Luke Malmanger drove in a run and later scored.

Dan Blomgren lined an inside-thepark homer to right-center to lead off the fifth to extend the lead to 6-0. Another pair of runs in the sixth capped the scoring for Craig.

King pitchers did hold Craig catcher Jacob Campbell, a recent Chicago Cubs draft pick and University of Illinois commit, to a 1-for-4 day at the plate, but the rest of the team combined to go 12 for 26.

“They really don’t give you any breaks in terms of their lineup,” Wozniak said. “I thought we did a good job limiting the big inning, but we just couldn’t get the runs we needed.”

Overley was the reason for the lack of runs. The junior right-hander allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out five.

“Hats off to him,” Wozniak said. “He mixed things up and made it hard on us. I think we had some jitters up there, but he did a nice job.”

The Generals (14-10) featured a lineup that contained four freshman, including three of the first five hitters in the batting order.

“It’s been fantastic, a great experience to be up here,” Wozniak said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys on our team, a lot of freshmen starting and on the bench. To see the quality of play and the level of play up here was eye-opening for them.

“For our seniors to experience it, it was fantastic. These guys have worked so hard and deserved this.”

Green Bay Preble 3, Kimberly 2 (8 innings): The Hornets knocked off the defending state champions after surviving a late rally. Zach Renier delivered the go-ahead single with two outs in the eighth inning.

Waunakee 12, Eau Claire North 8: Waunakee broke a 7-7 tie in the sixth with a five-run burst. Ben Nordloh had the big hit, a three-run double.