Waupaca heading to Clintonville
The season continues for the Waupaca Lakemen and three other BABA baseball teams.
The Lakemen handed Scandinavia a 9-1 defeat Aug. 19 in the South-Central Division final.
Meanwhile, Clintonville eliminated Gresham 10-7 in the East Division final, while Little Falls beat Caroline 17-2 to win the West Division and Elderon topped Birnamwood 3-1 in the North Division final.
Clintonville will host Waupaca at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26, in one semifinal and Little Falls will host Elderon in the other. The winner of those two games will play for the BABA Grand Championship at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2. The winner of the Little Falls/Elderon game will host this year’s championship game.
Winning pitcher Cam Seidl got through the first three innings without allowing a baserunner. Every batter in the first two innings made contact, but four grounded out, one popped out and one, Jason Steinbach, lined out on a diving catch in right field by Tyler Goggins. Seidl also struck out all three batters he faced in the third.
Lakemen leadoff hitter Johnny Popham greeted Scandinavia starter Ryan Glodowski with a double to right-center field. Travis Holat flied out to right-center field, but Popham tagged and made it easily to third base and scored on Luke Behm’s promptly single to right field. Walker Smith bounced one up the middle, but R.J. Rosenthal scooped it, stepped on second and fired to first for an inning-ending double play.
The Lakemen went down in order in the second. Kyle Douglas walked in the third and Holat singled down the left-field line. Behm lined a single to left field, but a perfect throw from Carter Zblewski cut down courtesy runner Tyler Dayton at home plate.
Greg Seubert Photo
The Vikings opened the fourth inning with a line single from Tony Tuschen. Rosenthal bounced into a force out and Steinbach then lined one headed down the right-field line. It was tipped off the glove of Behm at first base and then landed in foul territory. The plate umpire did not see the tip and called it a foul ball. After conferring with the first base umpire, it was determined it indeed had hit Behm’s glove in fair territory. After much debate and questions among themselves and Lakemen manager Dave Peterson, the umpires ruled that it should have been a fair ball and estimated the runners would be at second and third base.
Seidl walked clean-up hitter Jesse Dickert intentionally to load the bases and Logan Moe bounced out to second base to drive in the tying run. Seidl and the Lakemen got out of the frame after third baseman Shawn Peskie made a play on a slow roller off the bat of Chris Yenter.
Smith grounded out to short to start the Lakemen fourth. Goggins unloaded a solo home run that was well over the flag pole in dead center field. Peskie singled, Austin worked Glodowski for a walk and designated hitter Rocky Mondello added a two-run double to right field. Douglas kept the inning alive with another single and Popham flied out to score pinch runner Cody Weller from third. Holat capped the inning with a home run that hit the left field foul pole to give the Lakemen a 7-1 lead.
Zblewski singled in the fifth, but never advanced past first base. Rosenthal, who relieved Glodowski on the mound in the fourth, got Goggins to ground out in the Lakemen fifth before walking Peskie and plunking Austin with a pitch. The next two batters reached on errors on ground balls to second and short, respectively, for two more insurance runs.
Seidl cruised through the sixth while Rosenthal encountered some stress with a walk, single by Goggins and another Peskie walk that loaded the bases after an out. Austin grounded out to Steinbach, who stepped on third base and fired to first to finish the double play.
Seidl gave up a leadoff single in the seventh, but snagged a line drive right back at him and turned it into an easy double play. That seemed to sap whatever zip the Vikings had left. Rosenthal would go on to give up only a leadoff single from Jake Popham to lead off the eighth, but nothing else as he closed out on the mound.
Jim Nighbor relieved Seidl in the eighth and had two very quick innings with a ground out and two strikeouts in each to wrap up the game.
The Lakemen pitching duo combined to strike out 11, including seven from Seidl. They gave up four hits, with two of them coming in the fourth.
Behm had three of Waupaca’s 12 hits, while Goggins and Holat added two each. The Lakemen benefited from five walks and a hit batter.