West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The West Allis Nationals downed the Milwaukee Beavers 3-2 on Saturday afternoon to advance to Sunday morning's semifinal round versus the Lannon Stonemen at West Bend High School at 10am.

Jimmy Jungbauer earned the complete game victory, allowing only 5 hits while striking out 4.   Max Widmar and Brian Huntzinger led the offense.

Winners of the Semi Final games play at 2pm at Carl Kuss Field in Regner Park. 

A rainout Thursday pushed the Nationals' matchup vs Monches to the Irish's home park for a Friday evening makeup.   After falling behind early 1-0, the Nationals patiently outlasted the Irish 8-1.

Facing a crafty lefty, the normally aggressive Natties drew 13 free passes waiting for pitches over the plate.  When the finally came, they were hit hard to the opposite field gap.  Brian Huntzinger led the offense with two walks, a double, a triple, and two runs scored.  Jake Kolasinski knocked in three runs and Nick Schmidlkofer knocked in two more.

Cody Griebling went the first six innings on the hill, allowing one earned run on three hits while striking out three.  Andy Arenson pitched the seventh, striking out three of the four batters he faced.

Today the Nationals take on the Milwaukee Beavers in both teams' final Pool play game.   First pitch is set for 2:30pm.   A victory will put the Nationals in position to earn a spot in Sunday's semi-final round. 

On Wednesday night the Nationals travelled to West Bend to begin Pool play in the 24 team Wisconsin Amateur Baseball Classic tournament.

The Rubicon Red Sox, whom the Nationals have never before played, were first up and the Nationals prevailed 5-4.   The Nationals jumped to an immediate lead in first when Matt Richer drove home Kyle Kalkopf.   The team added two more in the third on consecutive knocks by Brian Huntzinger, Matt Richer, and Shey Smith.  Smith and Richer teamed up again in the fifth; Richer singled and Smith doubled him home.

Curt Pryal threw five scoreless innings to earn the victory.  He allowed no runs on two while striking out two.   A two out rally in the bottom half of the seventh brought the Red Sox back to 5-4, but Adam Widder induced a weak ground ball for a force out and earned the save.

Next up in the WABC tourney are Monches Irish on Thursday night at 8:30pm in West Bend. 

The West Allis Nationals enjoyed home cooking Saturday - literally and figuratively - after a long period on the road.   Having completed road trips to Lombard, Illinois, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, and West Bend in the past 10 days the squad was back at familiar Harvey Kuenn Field in West Allis for a DH vs the Northern Illinois Legends.   Those in attendance were treated to wins by scores of 1-0 and 8-0.

Game was was a crisply played affair.   Offensive rallies were at a minimum so starting pitcher Jimmy Jungbauer maximized the one run he was provided in leading the team to victory.   Jungbauer allowed only three hits and struck out nine in the complete game shutout victory.   Jonah Meidl scored the game's only run, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Kalkopf after he had tripled to lead off the third inning.

Game two was equally tight until the Nationals offense woke up in the fifth inning.   When the dust cleared the Nationals had plated 7 runs on 8 hits to take a commanding 8-0 lead.  Brian Huntzinger, Matt Richer, Shey Smith, Nick Schmidlekofer, and Jake Kolasinski all had RBI knocks in the frame.

Chad Tindall pitched the first 5 innings for the victory, allowing only two hits while striking out four.  Sam Mahar, in his Nationals debut pitched the final two innings, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Next up for the Nationals is the Wisconsin Amateur Baseball Classic in West Bend.   The team has three games in their pool - Wednesday vs Rubicon, Thursday vs Monches, and Saturday against the Milwaukee Beavers.   Pool winners advance to the tournament semi-finals on Sunday.