Prescott continues to find way to a state title, win semifinal 16-7
Prescott gave up the most amount of hits it's had all season in one game in Thursday's afternoon's WIAA Division 3 State Semifinal at Fox Cities Stadium. But the No. 1 ranked Cardinals had their bats going too and they also played better defense on their way to a 16-7 win over Oshkosh Lourdes/Oshkosh Valley Christian.
- Prescott's Conner Loutsch
- Prescott's Aric Sandvig
GRAND CHUTE - Prescott gave up the most amount of hits it's had all season in one game during Thursday's afternoon's WIAA Division 3 State Semifinal at Fox Cities Stadium.
But the No. 1 ranked Cardinals had their bats going too and they also played better defense on their way to a 16-7 win over Oshkosh Lourdes/Oshkosh Valley Christian.
PHS took a 5-0 lead after their first at bats and looked to overwhelm the Knights (15-10 overall). But in their first at bats Lourdes/OVC had five straight hits, including three off-the-wall doubles in a row by pitcher Robbie Kleman, Chris Hetzel and Jake Held, cut the PHS lead to 5-4. They eventually took the lead at 6-5 in the second and had 15 hits in the ballgame.
PHS switched over to senior Conner Loutsch and while he didn't stop the Knights' barrage he at least kept them from any more big innings thanks to his pitching and solid defense. PHS didn't commit an error in the ballgame and got themselves out of several bases-loaded jams. Shortstop Billy Brookshaw snagged a couple of line-drive at shortstop which prevented runs from scoring. Lourdes/OVC only plated one more run from the second inning onward.
"We have arguably one of our best defensive teams we ever had here at Prescott," Cardinal head coach Jeff Ryan said. "They got some hits on us and we knew going in they had some good hitters. That's was no fluke. But once Conner got going with his unorthodox style of pitching, we kept them off the scoreboard for the most part and Billy showed why he's one of the best shortstops in the state."
That left the Knights vulnerable to Prescott's bats and the Cardinals came roaring back by plating four runs in the third retake the lead 9-6 and then added three runs in the fifth and seventh innings. PHS had 12 hits led by Brookshaw's three with three RBIs. Loutsch and Mike Brookshaw also had three RBIs, Mike Brookshaw belted an RBI-double and Billy Brookshaw stole two bases.
Lourdes/OVC also hurt themselves with five errors, several of them coming in the third inning as Prescott's aggressive base running had the Knights off-balance. They were further befuddled by a suicide squeeze bunt from Brandon Keiper in the fourth which scored Jake Hintz.
"The suicide squeeze can be a pretty demoralizing play when it works, but I think by then the momentum of the game was in our favor," Ryan said. "We are a very aggressive base running team and we'll get runs anyway we can."
Lourdes/OVC's top batter was lead-off man Jack Danielson, who went 4-for-4.
Prescott will play Orfordville Parkview, in the championship game tomorrow at noon approximatley. The Vikings, 22-7 overall, upset No. 10 Menasha St. Mary's earlier in the afternoon 2-0 as winning pitcher Jameson Lavery threw a no-hitter, retiring 17 batters in a row and striking out 10.
Tags: prep baseball, sports, prep
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