Let's Get After It!
That's what most of the higher seeds across the state did today. They got after it. Take a look at the scores on wissports.net and you won't find many lower seeds that got into the win column. There were some but not many.
There were some pretty good invididual performances today as well.
Mikayla Pagel of D.C. Everest became the first-ever known Wisconsin high school player to hit three automatic home runs in one game more than once. She did it earlier this year against Stratford in a game in Poynette in April and she did it again today in a 14-0 win over Wausau West. Her final one of the three was a game-ending grand slam. Some might refer to it as a walk off but technically speaking when a game is over due to a mercy rule it's tough to call it a walk off game winner. It's a walk off game ender.
The same thing happened in Poynette today when in the bottom of the sixth with the Pumas leading Cambridge 6-0 pinch hitter Brooke Dredske, a freshman laced an outside offering offering over the fence in right-center field. It's not very often that a pinch hitter hits a game ending grand slam either.
In Luxemburg today Wrightstown pulled off an upset in 11 innings over the Spartans who themselves staged a late four-run rally to force extra innings. The score was 5-4 but the game was even tighter than the score indicates.
That takes me back to the game in Poynette where Cambridge staged a great upset bid over the Pumas. They just could not muster a key hit against Poynette's Jordan Blochwitz who snuffed out two rallies with strikeouts.
Portage upset Columbus 3-0 in Columbus while a team to start watching very, very closely is Oconto Falls. Don't let the record fool you because lefty pitcher McKenna Larsen is back in the circle and could very well pitch that team to the state tournament after getting back into the lineup after hand surgery just last week,
LaCrosse Logan moved up another round in Division 2 action while Cashton topped Brookwood in Division 4. Luther topped Westby as well in Division 3. Here is a link to LaCrosse Tribune coverage of those games. Note that Jordyn Kleman's name is misspelled in the headline of the Logan article. No matter the spelling, K is the letter that can be associated with her pitching.
Some other games of note include: In Division 1 Superior nipped Hudson 1-0, Bay Port beat Wisconsin Rapids 1-0; In Division 2 it was Northwestern 7, Ashland 6 while Rice Lake took down Amery to set up a finale against Northwestern; River Valley tipped Platteville 5-1 and Monroe beat Mt. Horeb 5-1 in a come-from-behind win, Xavier topped Freedom 4-1, New London stayed alive with a 4-1 win over Fox Valley Lutheran, Notre Dame scored two in the bottom of the 7th to nip Shawano 4-3; In Division 3 Parkview was able to just sneak past Belleville 6-5 while Brodhead topped Wisconsin Heights which sets up a regional final between Rock Valley foes Parkview and Brodhead. In the north Phillips' rejuvenated program under new leadership knocked off Hurley while Chequamegon beat Cameron 10-2 to set up a game against neighboring Phillips; Iowa-Grant snuck past Boscobel 3-2 and will now face a rival in Mineral Point who was led by a great day from pitcher/hitter Beth Wood. Stratford knocked off Spencer 11-3 and Pacelli got the best of Weyauwega-Fremont 6-0; In Division 4 Cochrane-Fountain City clipped upstart Augusta 1-0 whil Gilman took care of Prentice 7-1 as Pirate's sophomore pitcher Emily Johnson twirled a no-hitter with 10 Ks and one walk; Riverdale took down Belmont 6-3 while Wausaukee beat Elcho 8-0.
Check out the wissports.net site for this week's Triple Play/Triple Threat feature about McKenna Larsen of Oconto Falls and the Splash of the Week for a look inside the Regis Softball program.
For those who thirst daily for fastpitch action to watch just look at the games postponed from yesterday and take one in. You can bet that I will be doing just that.
Have a great fastpitch day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob
