The Fastpitch Chronicle

It's always interesting to see how the lower seeds do in the tournament series.

I hustled home after watching #6 Wisconsin Heights upend #3 Pardeeville in our regional and that game was never close as Heights busted out to a 4-run lead in the top of the first inning. That one and the following games simply prove that there is nothing guaranteed. Players and teams need to show and compete and not take anybody lightly.

Here are some findings I discovered tonight:

Perhaps one of the biggest upsets of the day in the WIAA regional games is the one where Osseo-Farichild, the #7 seed upset #2 seed Fall Creek 5-2. For Fall Creek it had to be a stunning defeat for a group of seniors who had done so well. Osseo-Fairchild now moves on to play Regis, an 8-1 winner over Mondovi.

In Freedom, Little Chute won by a score of 4-1. Little Chute was the #7 seed in that regional.

Yet another #7 beating a #2 took place in Brillion where Kewaunee knocked off the host 11-9 in eight innings.

As I browsed through the other games that were posted on the WIAA website the next biggest upsets included the game I watched in Pardeeville where the #3 seeded Bulldogs allowed four first-inning runs to the #6 seeded Wisconsin Heights Vanguards. Heights when on to claim an 8-5 win. They will now play at Poynette on Tuesday. Another #6 Winnebago Lutheran upset Lomira 9-4. And yet another 6 upsetting 3 when Richland Center took Dodgeville down 7-6; West Salem took Viroqua down in a 6 vs 3 game by a score of 11-9; St. Francis beat Milwaukee Lutheran in a 6 vs 3 game by a score of 10-4; and lastly in the 6 vs 3 games, Lakeland beat Tomahawk 10-8.

There are a lot of #5 vs #4 wins but I don’t view those as upsets. They are usually pretty good games between what are normally evenly matched teams no matter which conference they come from. Here are some of those I came across: Palmyra-Eagle over Shoreland Lutheran 5-4 in eight innings. P-E stays alive as the only public school in that primarily private school regional; Cameron beat Phillips 6-4; Prescott beat Durand 5-4; Stanley-Boyd beat Cadott 5-2; Cambridge beat Deerfield 7-4; Bonduel beat Crivitz 9-3; Hillsboro beat Wonewoc-Center 3-0; Pittsville beat Port Edwards 11-10 in eight innings; North Crawford beat Kickapoo 8-5; Manitowoc Lutheran beat Princeton/Green Lake11-7; Spring Valley beat Cornell 16-9; Independence/Gilmanton beat Lincoln 3-2; Sauk Prairie beat Wisconsin Dells 9-8; Xavier tipped Winneconne 4-3 in eight innings.

Not all of the scores were posted while I was compiling this bulletin.

The game I was at included an unreported substitute when a Wisconsin Heights player failed to report. It was handled correctly by the two excellent umpires at that game. A team warning was issued to the Wisconsin Heights team.

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I'm anxious to see just how many makeup games get played now that the tournament series has begun. What teams really needed was this entire week to get games played and hold off on starting the tournament series. There are logistical issues I'd guess that kept that from happening. I stayed out of that discussion.

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Wisconsin fell to North Carolina today in the NCAA Regional in Oregon. They'll have to win four in a row to advance to the Super Regional.