New London eliminates Waupaca
By Greg Seubert
It’s been quite a year for Iola’s baseball programs.
Iola-Scandinavia High School’s team made its first trip to the WIAA state spring tournament in June and now it’s the American Legion team’s turn.
Post 14 earned a spot in the Class A State Tournament in Clintonville July 23 with a 3-1 win over Marathon in the championship game of the Tomahawk Regional and opened state tournament play in Clintonville July 26 against Waupun.
Meanwhile, Waupaca’s season ended at a Class AA regional in Menasha.
Class A
Tomahawk Regional
Besides handing Marathon a 3-1 loss in the championship game of the regional, Post 14 also dropped a 7-2 decision July 22 to Wittenberg, beat Marathon 6-4 July 21 and opened the tournament July 20 with a 6-5 win over Mosinee.
Iola trailed Mosinee 5-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, but came up with five runs.
Cam Gruenwald led off the seventh with a double, Seth Korb walked and Scott Aasen singled to load the bases with nobody out. Bryce Huettner drove in a run with a one-out single and Ethan Olson cut Mosinee’s lead to 5-3 with a sacrifice fly to score Korb.
Mosinee made a pitching change, as Brandon Bernarde replaced Jace Baumann, who had held Iola to one run in six innings.
Iola was one strike away from losing the contest before Caleb Loken delivered a two-run double off of Bernarde to left field that tied the game. Post 14 wasn’t finished, as Nate Korb walked to keep the inning alive and Loken scored the game-winning run on Carter Kurki’s hit.
The tournament also included teams from Marion, Tomahawk and Medford.
Class AA
Menasha Regional
Kaukauna advanced to the Class AA state tournament in Merrill with 14-1 and 4-1 wins July 22 over New London at Koslo Park.
Waupaca opened the six-team tournament that also included teams from Hortonville, Menasha, and Seymour by falling to New London 2-0 July 19.
Will Wohlt went the distance and held Waupaca to two hits while Ryan Dayton took the loss.
Waupaca rebounded the following day with a 14-3 win over Hortonville behind three hits and three RBIs from Max Menzies.
Brenden Canterbury, Jake Popham, Jake Pankratz, Hayden Neidert and Dayton added two of Waupaca’s 14 hits, while Brandon Krcmar got the win on the mound.
Waupaca stayed alive in the tournament July 21 with a 10-2 win over Menasha, but ended its season with a 3-2 loss later in the day to New London.
Popham had four of Waupaca’s 15 hits against Menasha and Pankratz drove in three runs to knock the hosts out of the tournament.
Keegan Stanchik added three hits, while Canterbury and Neidert added two each and Neidert picked up the win.
Menasha committed six errors in the game.
Jake Hoier went the distance to get the win for New London. The Clippers came up with runs in the first third and sixth innings, while Waupaca’s runs came in the second and fourth.
Popham took the loss for Waupaca and Menzies had two of Waupaca’s seven hits.