Lake Mills won its 15th consecutive game by knocking off the Wilmot Panthers 1-0 to capture the Regional Championship. It was the L-Cats 3rd Regional Championship in the past four seasons. Junior hard-baller Ava Kleinfeldt threw the shut out for the win. She lasted all 7-innings and allowed 5 hits and striking out 5 and walking zero. The back-and-forth dual continued until the L-Cats broke the ice in the bottom of the 5th. Sophomore Savannah Radke singled on a bunt. Freshman Lily Doerr then advanced Radke to 2nd on a sac bunt. Sophomore shortstop Haydenn Sellnow drove a line drive into left field which scored Radke on the only run of the game. Kleinfeldt helped her own cause at the plate going 3x3 to lead the L-Cats. The defense gave up one error. Kamryn Poepping got the loss for the Panthers pitching 5 innings and striking out 5.
“Our girls simply are not afraid of the big moment nor any opponent or pitcher we face. I love the competitive drive, composure, and team-first mentality we have embraced as the season has gone along. It served us very well tonight. There were a couple of sticky situations we were in and our defense rose to the occasion again. The heady double play by Taylor, Lily, and Belle was huge and effectively stole the momentum from Wilmot. Our pitch selection was good again and some of the hits just weren’t falling, but that’s softball. Ava was stellar tonight and Wilmot never found a rhythm against her. As the girls hear from me very often, the formula headed into the sectional semifinals is no different than the first game of the year; we win by taking care of the most important pitch of the game, which is the next one.”
The L-Cats travel to #1 seed New Berlin Eisenhower on Tuesday at 5 PM for the sectional semi-final contest.
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