West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The defending Langsdorf champion West Allis Nationals fought an up-hill battle all year. After making it into the playoffs, their first opponent was the 1st place Racine Kiwanis. Game 1 was a re-match of the near bench clearing brawl, with LHP Mike Jacobson (UW-Whitewater) and RHP Jim Jungbauer. The Nationals got on the board with 2 in the 1st inning. CF Adam Karas reached on an error and made it to 2nd on the overthrow. SS Andy Gerharz (UWM) reached base which brought up 1B Tom Donovan, who popped an infield fly pop up that reached the grass in right and was dropped. Karas advanced to 3rd and Gerharz moved up on the throw. DH James Herkowski drove in a run on a groundout and RF Jeff Donovan beat out an infield single to make score the 2nd run. Jungbauer held the lead until the 5th, when the Kiwanis tied the game at 2. In the top of the 7th the Nats pushed across 2 more runs on an amazing at-bat by veteran LF Alex Franson, in which the end result was a hard hit grounder to third base. 3B Ryan Gilboy (Austin Peay) initially booted the ball allowing Tom Donovan to score. With 2 outs and a runner on 2nd C Jared Stengal ripped a double to score the runner. With the game at 4-2, Jungbauer retired the Kiwanis in the 7th after allowing 1 base runner. The Nats are now 1 victory away from reaching the Langsdorf Championship. Game 2 was a well played game. Both teams got great starting pitching and their teams defenses backed them up. Racine Kiwanis starter Riley Weidner is their bona-fide ace and he acted like it, scattering 5 hits over 7 innings and not allowing the Nats to tally. RHP Tim Spata matched Weidner with 5 scoreless innings and he gave way to RHP Jeff Donovan, who threw a scoreless 6th. The Nats just never could get anything going against Weidner, who towards the end of the game relied heavily on his slider to get outs. In the top of the 7th, Racine came out and got a lead-off double by 2B Eric Lehrner. 3B Ryan Gilboy then was fanned on some high heat. DH Ryan Schmidt was intentionally walked to bring up C Dan Bucholz. Bucholz doubled down the left field line, scoring 2 runs and making it a 2-0 game. Donovan was able to get out of the inning without any further damage. In the bottom of the 7th, the Nats were able to put a few runners on base, but the rally was defused when LF Alex Franson hit into a 6-4-3 double play. With a man on 3rd and 2 outs, then Weidner got the final batter out to complete the shutout. All and all it was a good day of ball, but Game 3 will be on Tuesday at Zirkel Field. 1 Game- 9 innings for the right to play the West Allis White Sox, who defeated the Kenosha Kings 2 games on Saturday.