Warriors are final summer champions
MEQUON - High school summer baseball in Wisconsin just didn’t want to end.
Frankie Cistaro and Muskego, however, had a different plan.
Cistaro lined a two-out, walk-off single to complete a dramatic eighth-inning comeback and lift the Warriors to a 2-1 victory over Pius XI in the state championship game on Friday night at Kapco Park.
Pinch-runner Richard Wauer slid safely into home plate with the winning run to give Muskego its first summer baseball state title as well as its last, as it was the final game of WIAA summer baseball with the organization only offering spring baseball beginning next season.
“This is our first state championship in baseball. This happens to be the last summer one also, and the fact that’s it’s our first one is something that they will never forget,” Muskego head coach Jacob Paige said. “I
don’t know if anyone can say they’ve seen a better high school baseball game than that.”
If anyone has — and those at the 2002 title game that Muskego lost to West Bend East might want a word — then it wasn’t by much.
Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the eighth a Gino D’Alessio sacrifice fly put the Popes (30-4) on top, the Warriors had two outs to spare when they made one final, desperate push.
Facing D’Alessio, who entered as the pitcher in the eighth to close out the game having not allowed a run in 9 1⁄ innings
3 on the season, Muskego junior Cooper Tamblyn sparked the rally with a one-out double to right and immediately advanced to third on a wild pitch.
Paige didn’t have to think about what to do next. He just went with his gut.
Despite multiple failed bunt attempts by the Warriors on the day, senior Drew Iverson dropped down a suicide squeeze, scoring Tamblyn from third to tie the game at 1-1.
“The bunt wasn’t exactly working for us the entire game, but I felt like that was our best chance to get our run across and extend the game,” Paige said. “It was just an instant reaction. I didn’t give it a ton of thought.”
The Warriors then got walks from junior Hunter Fredrick and junior Sam Chovanec drawing walks, forcing Pius to make a pitching change and bring in right-hander Kayde Thiele.
Cistaro, the team’s senior captain, drove a pitch right back up the middle and Wauer beat centerfielder Sam Treffert’s throw to the plate.
“He fell behind me 1-0 so I was thinking he was going to throw a fastball,” Cistaro said. “I just took it right back the chute. My team’s looked up to me before. I didn’t let the moment get to me, didn’t do too much with the ball, just wanted to put in play and make something happen.
“I put a good barrel on it and it went through.”
While Iverson’s execution and Cistaro’s heroics put Muskego over the top, it was the team’s pitching that carried the load all day.
The Warriors allowed just one run on three hits combined over their two games at state, highlighted by senior Rob Zolecki’s no-hitter in a 1-0 semifinal win against Plymouth.
Sophomore Jacob