West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

An isolated cloudburst nixed the slated battle between the Nats and Kenosha Kings last Tuesday.   Zirkel Field was briefly rendered Zirkel marsh. 

When ominous skies imperiled yesterday's affair, the locals were left with the prospect of sitting idle for over a week.  (This is not exactly newsworthy considering the day-to-day affairs of Tom Donovan and Joey Reisinger)

Alas, poor Sussex, the rain did not prevail.  Those fans and players sober enough to take in the action witnessed a workmanlike performance by the boys from 'Stalis as they took two from a lean Cardinals squad, winning by scores of 8-4 and 10-0.

Sussex's Scott Carberry put the Cardinals on the board early in game one.  His two out, first inning homer off Nats starting pitcher, Jimmy Jungbauer, gave Sussex and early 1-0 lead. 

The Nats responded quickly.  After leadoff batter, Kellen Haynes, grounded out to the pitcher, the Nationals offense went to work.  An Adam Kaufman single was sandwiched between walks to Alex Franson and Jared Stengel, loading the bases for red-hot Tom Donovan.  Once again, the team RBI leader came through.  Donovan smoked a single to the gap in right center field.  All three runners scored on the play and the Nats were well on their way to victory.  Jim Jungbauer went 5 innings before tiring and giving way to Tim Spata for mop up duty.

Game two was shortened to six innings as a courtesy to the old, injured, and thirsty Nationals on the bench.   Seeing your seated comrades wearing silk instead of Nationals blue and sporting casts and braces as opposed to batting gloves can really put the game in perspective. 

Not really.   The squad simply took advantage of the league's 10 run slaughter rule, piling on 5 runs in the sixth to send the Sussex home and the locals to the Cadillac in the parking lot.

Corey Berndsen picked up his second win of the year, going the distance while recording his first career Nationals shutout.

Next up are the pesky Racine Kiwanis.  Also 3-0 in league play, Jack Schiestle's squad is sure to be well-prepared.  Nationals BP starts anytime after 5PM on Tuesday.  Jack has already told his guys, though, that they should  be at the park by noon for calisthenics, film sessions, and early-season performance evaluations.