Posted: June 22, 2010 |(0) Comments

Franklin baseball

It was a good week for Franklin as the Sabers went 2-0 in their own Wood Bat Tournament on Saturday after beating two Greater Metro Conference opponents earlier in the week.

In the Johnsen Construction Wood Bat Tournament held at Franklin and Whitnall on Saturday, the Sabers defeated Thomas More in a hard fought battle 2-1 in eight innings.

Junior Trevor Theissen scored the winning run when the Thomas More pitcher threw high to first base on a sacrifice bunt by Jay Dirienzo. Ryan Geil pitched seven strong innings and Marcus Schlemm picked up the win in relief.

In the semifinal game, after being down 2-1 in the first inning, the Sabers scored nine unanswered runs and defeated Waukesha West, 10-2.

Schlemm, Dirienzo, Geil and Evan Walton each collected two hits. After allowing four walks in the first inning, freshman Evan Kruczynski settled down and got the win on the mound. He allowed only one hit and struck out five.

Because of the rain on Friday, the games at Whitnall started late. Therefore, the championship was not played. Geil and Walton were selected to the All-Tournament Team.

The Sabers used a 13-run second inning to 10-run Brookfield Central on June 17 as Jay Dirienzo led the 15-hit attack with three hits, including a bases-loaded triple, two runs scored and five RBI.

The Sabers were rained out at Tosa East on June 15 and the game is rescheduled June 30 at 5:30 p.m. at Breitlow Field in Wauwatosa.

The Sabers are in second place (4-2) in the GMC.

Oak Creek baseball

Oak Creek won the South Milwaukee Wood Bat Tournament on Saturday and went 2-1 in Greater Metro Conference play (5-4 league record), beating Marquette and splitting two games with Brookfield East, to go 5-1 for the week.

"This was a great week for us to give us some momentum as we head into the heart of the conference schedule," coach Scott Holler said. "Our young hitters are gaining more confidence at the plate with each and every at bat and we've been doing some good things on the bases as well."

Holler also praised several of his players.

"Sophomore Brad Schulte picked up a big win over Marquette in his first conference game and we're going to lean on him for some big innings the rest of the way.

"Billy Wallace and Joey Gribble have been on fire lately and are giving us balance throughout the lineup to go with the consistency that Andy Page and Tyler Zemla have been providing since day one. Combine them with what Josh Jesko and Kyle Veloz are capable of and I think we can make some things happen offensively."

The Knights (13-4) defeated Port Washington, 10-0, in the first game, South Milwaukee, 4-3, in the semifinal and Menomonee Falls, 8-7, in the championship game.

Junior Ryan Ungerecht pitched a five-inning shutout against Port, to pick up his second win of the season.

Senior Andy Page went 2 for 3, including his first triple of the season.

Game two featured a pitcher's duel between junior Kyle Veloz and South Milwaukee's Aaron Kobza. Veloz pitched a season-high six innings, striking out six and walking only two. Kobza also went six innings.

With the game tied 2-2 in the top of the seventh, South Milwaukee took the lead 3-2 on a passed ball. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, a bloop single brought in two runs for the Knights sending them to the title game.

After falling behind, 2-0, after the first inning, the Knights responded in a big way in the bottom half of the third inning as they collected six consecutive hits off Falls starter Joey Bratten to chase him from the game.

Veloz (2-4, 2 RBI, 2 SB)) and Gribble (3-3, 2 RBI, 2 SB) each collected two run singles and a sac fly by Magyar was followed by a run-scoring single by Page to give the Knights a 6-2 lead after three innings.

The Knights added another run in the fourth.

Falls scored two runs in the top of the fifth and three more in the sixth to tie the game at seven heading into the bottom of the sixth.

In the Knights bottom half of the sixth, Veloz scored the go ahead run from second after Falls reliever Max Poeske threw the ball away trying to pick off Gribble at first.

Wallace and Veloz were named to the All-Tournament Team. Wallace went 6 for 11 for the day with two runs scored and two RBIs.

Veloz went 3 for 8 with two RBIs, two stolen bases and three runs scored, including the game-winning runs against both the Rockets and the Indians.

The Knights play Brookfield Central at 5:30 p.m. today, their fourth consecutive GMC game this week.

Whitnall baseball

The Falcons could have had a much better week last week. But instead of going 4-1 or even 5-0, Whitnall went 1-4 in its five games bringing its overall record to 6-6 and is 3-3 in conference play.

But in those four losses, Whitnall lost by a combined six runs and three of them were by just one run.

The first loss was to New Berlin Eisenhower, the Woodland Conference's first-place team. Whitnall led 2-0 after five innings, but the Lions scored three runs in the sixth with two of them coming on a Falcon error. A baserunning error in the seventh halted any comeback and the Falcons lost, 3-2. They came back in the second game of the doubleheader to squeak out a 1-0 win behind senior Nolyn White's complete-game shutout.

"Nolyn has been an ace for us all season so far," coach Brian Johnsen said. "The key for him is keeping his walks down. We cannot ask for much more than what he is doing.

Whitnall's only run came in the sixth inning when senior Alex Jaskulski singled home junior Ben Schaefer.

One day later, Whitnall lost another one-run game to New Berlin West, 6-5. After trailing 4-1, the Falcons stormed back to take a 5-4 lead, but West tallied two more in the sixth for the win.

Their final two losses of the week came against non-conference foes, Catholic Memorial and Whitefish Bay, in the Johnsen Construction Wood Bat Tournament. Against Memorial, sophomore Luke Mentkowski, who was making his varsity debut on the mound, pitched a complete game and only allowed one earned run. But shoddy defense (five errors) led to six Memorial runs.

Against Bay in the consolation semifinal, the Falcons lost, 1-0, and errors were again the problem, as Bay's only run came in the seventh on a Whitnall error. Like Mentkowski, Nathan Dupont was making his varsity debut and didn't allow an earned run in seven innings but got no run support.

"I feel bad for Nathan that we could not help him out," Johnsen said. "He threw strikes and did a great job."

Whitnall hosts Brown Deer today before traveling to Pewaukee Friday.

Greendale baseball

The Panthers begin a difficult stretch today with a contest at South Milwaukee.

Greendale split with the Rockets, the Woodland Conference-Black's second-place team, in a doubleheader last week.

After that contest, the Panthers (4-9, 4-3 Woodland Conference) look to win their first non-conference game of the season when they face Nicolet (12-4) on Friday and Milwaukee Marquette, the 2009 state runner-up on Saturday.

Greendale defeated Greenfield, 5-1, last week behind the combined pitching performances of juniors Nick Lichtenwalner and JoJo Sardina.

 

- Tom Skibosh and Christopher Kuhagen