Softball teams win regional championship
By Greg Seubert
The Iola-Scandinavia and Hortonville softball teams have a lot in common.
Both needed extra innings June 16 to win a WIAA regional championship. They also won by identical 4-3 scores.
Iola-Scandinavia won its Division 4 championship with an eight-inning win over Algoma, while the Polar Bears came up with a run in the bottom of the 11th inning in a Division 1 win over Kimberly.
Both teams will play a sectional semifinal Monday, June 21, with Iola-Scandinavia traveling to Coleman and Hortonville heading to Kaukauna.
The winner of those games played in a sectional final Wednesday, June 23. The Iola-Scandinavia/Coleman winner faced Mishicot or Stockbridge/Hilbert in Random Lake, while the Hortonville/Kaukauna winner played Green Bay Preble or Pulaski in Ashwaubenon.
Division 4
Iola-Scandinavia 4, Algoma 3 (8 inn.)
Timely hitting and stellar defense helped the third-seeded Thunderbirds defeat the second-seeded Wolves on their home field.
The T-Birds committed four errors in the game, but several defensive plays – including double plays in the first and fourth innings – kept Iola-Scandinavia in the game. Catcher Marin Hoyord caught an attempted sacrifice bunt pop-up in the first inning and threw to first base to get the runner out. In the fourth, third baseman Katie Cherek caught a line drive and doubled up the runner at first base.
Iola-Scandinavia opened the scoring in the first inning. Hoyord walked with two outs and courtesy runner Hanah Netys advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Alexa Christoph’s infield single. The Wolves tied the game in the third inning, but the T-Birds came up with two runs in the sixth. Christoph walked, moved to second on Lizzie Jones’ sacrifice and scored on Clara Koles’ single. Koles eventually scored on Taylor Kielblock’s groundout.
Algoma tied the game with runs in the sixth and seventh to send the game into extra innings.
Jones singled to start the T-Birds’ half of the eighth inning and pinch runner Maddie Much advanced to second on Koles’ sacrifice bunt. Kielblock singled and advanced Much to third base and Much scored with two outs on sister Makayla Much’s bunt single.
Algoma hit the ball hard in the bottom of the eighth, including a two-out line drive back to Jones for the final out of the game.
Jones went the distance to earn the win. She allowed six hits and six walks while striking out three batters.
Iola-Scandinavia 19, Sevastopol 10
The T-Birds had opened tournament play June 14 with a win over the Pioneers.
Trailing 7-4, Iola-Scandinavia scored four runs in the fourth inning, five runs in the fifth and six in the sixth to break the game open.
After the Pioneers took an early 3-0 lead in the top half of the first inning, the T-Birds responded with two runs of their own. Jaelyn Sivertson tripled and Christoph drove in the second run to cut the lead to 3-2.
Iola-Scandinavia took a 4-3 lead in the second inning with two runs. Sivertson had a run-scoring triple and Cherek followed with a single to score Sivertson.
After a scoreless third inning, both teams scored four runs in the fourth to make the score 8-7. Cherek hit a two-run double and Christoph had a sacrifice fly.
The T-Birds put the game away with 11 runs over the next two innings. Sivertson had a run-scoring triple and Hoyord drove in a run with a single in the fifth inning. Cherek and Christoph drove in two and one run, respectively, with singles in the sixth.
Sivertson, Cherek, Hoyord and Makayla Much each had three hits for the T-Birds. Sivertson had three triples and drove in two runs; Cherek had a double and had five RBIs; Hoyord and Christoph each drove in two runs; and Makayla Much added three infield bunts.
Jones worked the first four innings to earn the win. She allowed eight hits and one walk and had four strikeouts. Julia Munoz pitched the next inning allowing one hit and three walks; and Maddie Much pitched the final two innings to earn the save.
Division 1
Hortonville 4, Kimberly 3 (11 inn.)
Hannah Meshnick allowed seven hits and had nine strikeouts to get the complete-game win while adding three hits at the plate.
Neither team scored until the Polar Bears scored twice in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Kimberly tied the game in the fifth before both teams came up with a run in the eighth.
Kamy Peppler scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th.
Tavia Schmidt also had three hits for the Polar Bears, while Brooke Ellestad and Morgan Vandermissen had two for the Papermakers.
Hortonville 10, Appleton West 0
The second-seeded Polar Bears improved to 22-4 on the season by shutting out the seventh-seeded Terrors June 14.