West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

Not by James Herkowski

By most accounts the Nationals had no business winning this game.  Defending Land-O-Lakes League champion Pewaukee came in with an unblemished 5-0 mark and was starting staff ace, John Arnold, on the mound.  Though Tom Donovan greeted him with a run scoring triple, Pewaukee posted 3 runs in their half of the first and jumped out to a 3-1 lead.  Each subsequent inning brought additional threats by the Muskies.  Pewaukee consistently put runners in scoring position,  but the death blow never came.

The Nationals took multiple body shots, but endured, grinding away with patient plate discipline.  The reward for this discipline came in the eighth inning when the team pushed 6 runs across against tiring Muskie pitching.  (Play by Play available under "2004 Statistics" link.)  The unexpected outburst secured an important early-season victory for the Nats.  Next up are the cross-town rival West Allis White Sox at 6PM Saturday at Zirkel Field.