WIAA DIVISION 2 STATE BASEBALL SEMIFINAL Pewaukee’s season slips away in seventh
APPLETON – The top half of the seventh inning was like watching quicksand in action for the for Pewaukee baseball team Thursday afternoon, and the Pirates' season came to an end in a 9-8 thriller against No. 3-seeded Denmark in the second WIAA Division 2 state baseball semifinal.
“It just didn't go our way,” Pirates head coach Adam Dobberstein said. “I'm proud of our guys. It just didn't go our way.”
Nick Doubek provided another strong outing for the Pirates on the mound, going 51⁄3 innings while allowing just four hits and two earned runs with four walks and 10 strikeouts.
After Doubek's departure with the Pirates leading 6-2, Ryan Sopha came on in relief to nab the final two outs of the inning to put the Pirates on the doorstep of the state title game later on in the day.
Then, the ship began to sink. Sopha was tagged for back-to-back singles after an error at short put the leadoff man on. Sopha gave up a single up the middle to trim the lead to three. Denmark trimmed the Pewaukee advantage to 6-4 on an error at third and still had the bases loaded. Lucas Miller tied the game with a two-run double over the outstretched arms of Logan
Schill in left center.
A wild pitch and the fourth error of the game for the Pirates had them in a three-run hole with three outs left in their season.
Logan Schill drilled his third extrabase hit of the game to give the Pirates a lifeline. Jack Sandvik followed with a walk, and a wild pitch put the Pirates in business after Schill attempted to take third base. The throw down got away and trimmed the deficit back to two.
“I just wanted to get a piece of the ball in every (at-bat), find a gap and help the team in any way possible because I love these guys. It's what you do,” said Schill, who finished with a pair of RBI triples and the one-out double in the seventh.
Carson Hansen dropped a little duck snort into shallow left field on a 3-2 count, scoring Sandvik's courtesy runner and giving Jackson Servais an opportunity to tie the game from first base after already being in motion. The throw from Denmark shortstop Abe Kapinos just beat Servais' slide at the plate, capping one of the wildest finishes of the tournament.
“When I hit that double off the wall, I was like, ‘Alright, there's a chance here. There's some fight. I know my team and what they're capable of,'” Schill said. “We fought all the way to the end. We did this, that and the other. We all have our different opinions about the play at the plate, but it is what it is.”