West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The Nationals travelled to Sheboygan Tuesday night looking to eliminate the sour taste of Saturday's loss to Racine and did just that with a come-from-behind 8-5 victory over the Sheboygan A's.

The Nats fell behind 3-0 in the first but got back in the game with a single tally in the third and three runs in the fourth.  Colby Gee started the fourth inning rally by reaching on an errant throw.  Mike Merritt then followed with an RBI double and Jared Stengel brought him home with an RBI single.   Adam Karas' bases loaded walk closed out the scoring, but the Nats had a lead they would never relinquish.

The Nats added to that lead when Nick Lingvay scored from third on a balk after reaching on a single, the second of his three hits on the night.   The Nats broke the game open in the seventh.  After a Matt Richer single and Lingvay walk, Jared Stengel delivered a clutch 2 out 2 run single to right center to give the Nats a 7 -3 lead.   Eric Schrader's RBI single in the eighth scored a running Nate Martin, closing out the scoring and pushing the lead to 8-3.

After a slow start in the first, Jimmy Jungbauer shut down the A's.  He retired 15 straight batters between the first and the sixth innings before allowing Tim Patzman to reach on a base on balls.  

The resilient A's threatened the Nationals lead in the 7th, loading the bases with no one out.  Jungbauer struck out the next two hitters and appeared to have the next hitter K'd as well before allowing a 2 out 2 RBI single to Drew Pearson.   Adam Widder then came on and retired the next hitter on a fly to right, defusing the rally.  After a quick eighth, Widder escaped a jam in the ninth with no runs, earning the save of Jungbauer's 5th victory, and giving the Nationals a hard-fought 8-5 win.

The playoffs begin Friday for the Nationals at 7:30pm at Kenosha-Simmons.   They'll host the winner of the playoff game between Burlington Barons/Kenosha Bobcats on Thursday.