Irish defend D2 softball title
By Greg Seubert
Thanks to the Freedom Irish, a second state softball championship was not in the cards this season for the New London Bulldogs.
The Irish repeated as WIAA Division 2 champions June 10 with an 8-0 win at Goodman Diamond in Madison.
New London had made it to the championship game with a 16-6 six-inning win over New Berlin Eisenhower June 9.
Freedom 8, New London 0
Freedom opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the second inning before adding four more in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Winning pitcher Peyton VandeLoo held the Bulldogs to five hits one day after New London set a state Division 2 record with 17 hits and 16 runs against New Berlin Eisenhower.
“Freedom’s pitcher pitched great,” co-coach Melinda Hull said. “We hit her, but we just weren’t hitting the gaps and they were making great plays.”
Kenna Mix, Shelby Glodowski, Mackenzie Bruette, Savannah Schaff and Ava Baehman had a hit for New London.
“These girls pushed all through the season,” Hull said. “They battled when everybody told them that they weren’t going to do anything and they weren’t going to be good.
We were seeded fourth and we had something to prove yesterday. They played hard today. That Freedom team is the real deal. They played a great game.”
New London 16, New Berlin Eisenhower 6 (6 inn.)
It didn’t take long for the Bulldogs to find their groove against the Lions, as New London scored eight runs in the top of the first inning.
The Lions answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, but New London added to its lead with a run in the second.
Eisenhower cut the lead to 9-4 with two runs in the third before the Bulldogs scored three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth. The game ended after New London held the Lions to two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Glodowski led the Bulldogs with four hits, while Baehman and Jensen Mix added three and Sommer Krull, Eve Hedtke and Brooklyn Fuerst chipped in with two each.
Bruette drove in a game-high four runs and Glodowski added three.
Kenna Mix struck out eight batters and picked up the win on the mound.
New London ended the season with a 19-6 record. The Bulldogs also won the Bay Conference with a 12-0 record and have won 34 consecutive conference games going back to the 2021 season.
“Thirty-four and 0, not very many teams get to say that,” Hull said. “We just told the girls to enjoy this. Only four teams get down here. They punched their ticket hard yesterday (against Eisenhower) and never gave up today.”