West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The West Allis Nationals rallied late on Thursday night, scoring 8 runs in the final 3 frames to defeat the Kenosha Kings 11-7 and force a third game to decide the 2010 Frank Langsdorf League championship.

The Nats jumped up early after Kyle Kalkopf doubled to lead off the game and scored on Brandon Hall's groundout.   Kalkopf was in the middle of the action again in the third with the score tied.   After reaching on a fielder's choice and advancing to second on an errant throw, Kalkopf stole third on a delayed steal and scored on Jared Stengel's infield single.

Kalkopf's walk with the bases loaded in the fourth plated the team's third run and put the Nats up 3-1, but that lead would prove to be short lived.    Shotty fielding by the Nats and timely hitting by the Kings led to three runs in the fifth and the Kings had a 4-3 lead at the midway point.

The Kings padded their lead with two more in the sixth and appeared to be cruising until Kalkopf was hit by a pitch with one out in the seventh.    Jared Stengel quickly responded with a two run homer to left and the Nats were back in the game at 6-5.    Tom Zimmerman later added an RBI single to knot the game at 6 and chase the Kings starter from the game.

Kenosha wasted no time in responding, taking the lead back in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI double by Billy Johnson.

Mike Kenseth led off the eighth with a walk for the Nationals and was sacrificed to second by Erik Martwick.  He later scored on a bases loaded walk to Brandon Hall and the game was knotted at 7 headed to the bottom of the eighth.   The Kings put runners on first and second with two outs, but failed to score and the game headed to the ninth.

Tom Zimmerman led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch.    Successive sacrifice bunts by Matt Soderlund and Mike Kenseth were executed perfectly and the Nats had the bases loaded with no one out.    That situation didn't last long.    Eric Martwick lined a single to right to give the Nats an 8-7 lead.   One out later, Stengel again came through, clearing the bases with a double to the wall in left and giving the Nats an 11-7 lead.

Curt Pryal made quick work of the Kings in the ninth, working around a two out single to close the door and secure the victory.

The season now comes down to one game.   The Kings will meet the Nats in a deciding game 3 of the championship series at 4:30pm on Saturday at New Berlin West High School.