As the Badger Amateur Baseball Association heads into its final weekend of regular-season play, a lot of teams have the postseason seeding on their minds.
The top four from each division qualify for the playoffs and in the South-Central, much is left to be determined by this week’s makeup games and Sunday’s finals.
Two games will take place Sunday at the Scandinavia Corn Roast. Waupaca will face Rosholt at noon, while Scandinavia will host Lanark at about 3 p.m. Scandinavia will also play Rosholt Friday night in a makeup game, while Waupaca hosted Plover in another rescheduled game Wednesday.
Scandinavia handed Waupaca a 16-4 defeat Sunday in a game that was shortened to eight innings due to the 12-run mercy rule.
Neither team scored in the first, as the Lakemen wasted a leadoff double from Jeff Riddle and the Vikings went in order against Zac Peterson. Waupaca put three runs on the board in the second, as Andy Wanty led off with a walk and moved to second on a David Yeska single. After a fielder’s choice, Rocky Mondello drove in Wanty and Josh Peterson drove in two more with a single to left center to give the Lakemen a 3-0 lead.
That lead was short-lived, however, as Andy Garr hit a solo home run with one out in the second. After another out, the Vikings ran an unbelievable string of eight straight hits to take an 8-3 lead. Matt Mehne, Hans Hartleben, Jack Marx, R.J. Rosenthal, Jeremy Moe, Willie Rosenthal and Jason Berrens singled before Garr added a two-run triple.
Waupaca did make a couple of mini-runs, but never got the key hit to put them in real contention. Braden Kaminske reached on an error in the fourth and scored on another single by Peterson. The Lakemen also got a leadoff double from Luke Behm in the fifth and leadoff hits by Mondello and Wes Austin in the sixth, but no runner got by third.
The Vikings scored a run off of Yeska in the fifth, as R.J. Rosenthal doubled in Marx, who reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second.
The Lakemen defense gave up two more runs in the sixth. Two runners reached on ground ball errors before Jesse Dickert drove in one with a single and Mehne got a sacrifice fly out of his fly ball into foul territory in right. Moe doubled and Berrens lined a home run to right to tack on two more runs off of Yeska in the seventh.
Dean Nelson came on to pitch the eighth, but got only a leadoff strikeout before Hartleben doubled, Aaron Kolinski singled him in and R.J. Rosenthal ended the game with a home run after his pop foul along the third base line was dropped and he got another chance.
Scandinavia finished with 22 hits off of three Lakemen pitchers. Garr led the way with four, while R.J. Rosenthal, Berrens and Hartleben added three each and Moe, Mehne and Marx chipped in with two each. Mehne went the distance to get the win on the mound.
The Lakemen had 11 hits, including a pair of doubles. Riddle, Behm, Mondello, Austin and Peterson each had two hits.
Waupaca came into Sunday’s game after recent wins over Little Falls and the Appleton Legends.
Kaminske pitched a complete game three-hitter July 28 in a 4-1 win over Little Falls on Fan Appreciation Night and struck out 12 in the seven-inning game. He walked four batters and hit another, but the strikeouts kept the Loggers off the board except for the first inning. Drew Radies led off with a walk, Tim Heise rapped a double and Radies scored on Ryan Gullixson’s sacrifice fly. The Loggers did get a runner to third in the third base and another to second in the third and fourth frames, but no other runner got past first.
The Lakemen tied the score in the bottom of the first, as Austin walked, stole second and scored on a Mondello single and added two more in the second on two walks and a Yeska single to load the bases. Austin broke the tie with a two-run single. The game’s final run came in the fourth, as Riddle walked, stole second and scored on an error.
Mondello had two hits to lead Waupaca, while Heise had two for the Loggers.
The Legends, which won the Class B state tournament over the weekend, came up on the short end of a 6-5 score Friday.
Waupaca came up with seven hits against the Legends and won the game with a quick five-run outburst in the fifth.
Appleton grabbed the lead in the fourth on three hits, but Waupaca tied it in the bottom of the inning on hits by Riddle and Behm. The Legends took a three-run lead in the fifth on four hits off of Wanty, but the game changed in the bottom of the fifth.
Yeska drew a leadoff walk and Austin and Zac Peterson reached on infield singles. Nelson then hit what looked to be a slow groundball foul toward third, but just before it reached the bag, it hit something and caromed fair for an infield RBI single. Riddle then followed with a grand slam blast to left and the Lakemen had a 6-4 lead.
Yeska came on in relief and got the first two batters before giving up three hits and one run. Appleton had the tying and lead runners on base in the seventh, but Yeska got a force out and strikeout to end the game. Wanty was credited with the win and Yeska picked up the save as the pair somehow managed to escape despite giving up 15 hits. They were aided by two Lakemen double plays and nine stranded runners.
The Lakemen were to finish their suspended game with Plover Wednesday night. They will host the Elderon WhiskeyJacks in the final nonconference game of the year at 7:30 p.m. Elderon ended up losing last year’s BABA Grand Championship game and is leading the North Division this year.
As a reminder, Sunday’s game with Rosholt at the Scandinavia Corn Roast against Rosholt starts at noon.