Wildcats Rally to Win Regional

“Holy smokes. What a fantastic game. Holy smokes,” said Tim Bartz, head coach of the University Schoolo of Milwaukee baseball team. His excitement was justifiable.  The Wildcats rallied for five runs in their last at-bats to win a 10-9 come-from-behind victory over Wisconsin Lutheran in the Regional final of the WIAA Division 2 state tournament playoffs held Wednesday at USM.

“It was a great comeback and a great win for our team,” said Bartz.  “It was perhaps the best game of my coaching career.  Funny thing is, all the way through I expected to win the game.  We have a very good team. I never doubted our guys could do it,” he intuitively added.

There were others in attendance that weren’t so sure.  Especially as they watched the Vikings start the game by taking a four run lead in the top of the first.  USM’s starting pitcher, Josh Baker hit Wisconsin Lutheran’s lead off batter, Jon Melms, in the foot.  He then had trouble determining the strike zone and uncharacteristically walked the next three batters, as well as balking one of them in.  Then Matt Bruss singled and Alex McDade singled to bring home more runs.  Baker settled down and peremptorily struck out three Wisconsin Lutheran batters to end the inning, but the situation was less than salubrious for the USM team.

The Wildcats scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning to minimize the damage.  Lane Stanford led of with a walk.  With one out Baker singled to left, and the following batter, Tommy Pennington, drew another walk to load the bases.  Billy Lawton hit a hard grounder behind the runners to get Stanford in. Lawton reached on an error on the play, keeping the bases full. Nathan Burke then hit another grounder to the right side to score Baker and make the score 4-2.

USM gleaned another run in the next inning.  Jack Wells led off by legging out a bunt single.  Nishad Agrawal hit into a fielder’s choice that eliminated Wells.  With two out, Greg Trinkl singled to right, and Baker followed with another single to drive in Agrawal.

Wisconsin Lutheran’s bats were still fecund, and the Vikings pulled further ahead in the bottom of the third.  With one out, McDade singled, advanced on Connor Tretow’s single, and came home on an error on the same play, which also allowed Treptow to take second.  Treptow scored on Brett Zemplinski’s single.  The Wildcats jumped out of the jam jar when Baker got Melms to ground into a 6-4-3 double play turned by Agrawal, Pennington, and Burke.  “That was easily our best double play of the season,” commented Bartz.

Some great fielding plays by both teams kept the score at 6-3 until the top of the sixth inning when the Vikings scored another.  Melms walked. At that point Bartz replaced Baker with Stanford, who had pitched four shutout innings to win USM’s first playoff game against Milwaukee Lutheran the day before.  Ryan Treichel dropped a sacrifice bunt to advance Melms. Melms then scored on Dave Henke’s double down the left field line.  But Stanford kept his cool.  He got Nolan McShane to ground out to Agrawal and ended the threat by striking out Bruss.

USM moved closer in the bottom of the sixth.  With one out, Trinkl walked.  Baker then lined a shot over the right field fence.  His two-run homerun was his fourteenth of the year.  More importantly, it made the score 7-5 with one inning left.

That one inning did not start well for USM.  Wisconsin Lutheran increased its lead with two more runs. Alex Bansemer singled to lead off the inning.  He went to second on a balk. McDade then reached on an infield error that allowed Bansemer to score.  McDade made it all the way to second on the play.  Treptow sacrificed bunted McDade to third and he scored on a double by Melms.

The Vikings seemed assured of a win with their four run lead and the bottom of the USM batting order due up in the seventh.  But their starting pitcher Eric Marshall had thrown over 125 pitches and he was tiring. And the Wildcats were not about to be denied.

“I told the guys, ‘We can do it. We have three outs left and no reason to hold back,’”  Bartz said. “I knew if we could get to the middle of our line up we would win it.”

Like an arsonist, Jack Wells sparked the come back.  He dropped a bunt in front of the plate and beat Marshall’s throw to first by a step.  Agrawal worked the pitcher for a walk on four pitches.  Wisconsin Lutheran’s coach Andre Gosch then replaced Marshall with Treptow to face the top of the USM batting order.  Treptow had trouble. Stanford walked to load the bases. Trinkl then walked to drive in Wells and bring Baker to plate. Baker grounded into a fielder’s choice, but the play at second allowed Agrawal to score USM’s seventh run and cause the home team’s confidence to swell. 

Pennington was the next batter.  He was ready.  He pounded the first pitch he saw to deep center to tie the game as Stanford and Baker raced home.  Lawton was intentionally walked, and Bartz put in Isaac Schlenker as a pinch runner at first.

That brought Burke to bat.  He waited patiently as two pitches went by as balls.  Burke then lined a shot to left that fell in or a single.  Pennington bolted.  He hustled around third and darted toward the plate.  Pennington slid as the ball arrived and beat the tag. The Wildcats had won.  They had scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 10-9.  They were the Regional champions.   

After the game Wells proudly said, “That was the best ballgame ever played by the fighting Wildcats.”

Burke was more reflective, “When I went to the plate I told myself, ‘hit it where it’s pitched. Trust your hands.’   We work on that in practice.  I watched as I went around first and luckily Tommy slid under the tag. It was great.”

Agrawal probably put it best when he concisely surmised, “It was a team effort.”

Stanford won his second game for the Wildcats in as many days. In the game, Baker was 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored, 4 RBIs, and a homerun.  Burke went 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs.  Pennington was 2 for 4 with 2 key RBIs.

The loss ended Wisconsin Lutheran’s season with a fine 18-6 record.  USM is now 24-2.  The Wildcats continue on in the state tournament playoffs.  They next play Racine St. Catherine’s in the Sectional semi-final game at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5th at Whitewater High School.