West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

Curt Pryal pitched 7 strong innings and Jared Stengel, Tyler Eikemeyer, Matt Soderlund, and Brent Young each produced two hits to lead the Nationals to a hard-fought 4-2 victory in Sheboygan Wednesday night.

The A's jumped to a 1-0 lead in the second and appeared ready to break the game open when Jared Fon started a 5-2-3 double play to extinguish the rally.   Pryal settled in after that point, retiring the side in order in the third, fourth, fifth, and seventh and working around a one out error in the sixth.   Pryal earned the win, allowing only 1 run on 4 hits.   Rob Coe pitched the eighth and ninth to earn the save, allowing one run on one hit while striking out the final three hitters he faced to end the game.

The Nationals offense was held scoreless until the seventh when Soderlund led off with a double and scored on Eikemeyer's single.  The Nats took the lead in the eighth.  After a Brent Young single, Matt Soderlund doubled him home to put the Nats up 2-1.   Jimmy Jungbauer followed with an infield single before Tyler Eikemeyer knocked in his second run of the game with his second knock of the contest.

Jared Stengel knocked in Rob Coe with an insurance run in the ninth to close the scoring.

Next up for the Nationals are the Langsdorf League's newest franchise, the Kenosha Bobcats.   The two clubs square off on Saturday for a DH at Simmons Field starting at 3pm.

Despite continued offensive struggles, the Nats were able to escape Saturday's DH in Genoa City with a split against a tough league foe.

Historically a house of horrors for the locals, little changed in game one.  Genoa City rallied to score a single tally in the bottom of the seventh to claim a 1-0 victory.   Wasted was a strong outing by Nationals starter Mitch Lochen, who held Genoa City to two hits and no runs through the first 6 innings of play.   Mike Kenseth and Matt Soderlund recorded the only hits for the Nats, who failed to move a runner to third base in the contest.

Game two provided some redemption as the Nats prevailed 5-1.   After blowing a golden scoring opportunity in the first and nearly doing the same in the second, Kyle Knaust got the Nats on the board with a two out RBI single, scoring Matt Soderlund, to knot the game at 1 a piece.

Joey Aiello led off the fourth with a double and Matt Soderlund followed with a double of his own to give the Nats their first lead of the day.  The Nats broke the game open in the fifth, scoring three more times on an RBI single by Joey Aiello, and RBI double by Matt Soderlund, and an RBI single by Jimmy Jungbauer.

Five runs proved more than sufficient for Nationals starter CJ Herrforth.  After allowing a first inning run, Herrforth cruised, throwing a complete game four hitter while walking none and striking out six.

Next up are the State League's Sheboygan A's.   The Nats travel to Sheboygan on Wednesday night for a single game at 7:30pm.

The Nats opened league play on Tuesday night against the West Allis White Sox at Zirkel Field in West Allis.  

The familiar surroundings were welcome after two road trips to open the season.  The offensive struggles, though, continued until an four-run eighth inning rally carried the squad to a 6-4 victory.

The Nationals (1-0, 3-2) were largely held down by Sox (0-1, 0-1) starter Matt Schader for the first six innings of play, limited to one hit and four walks.  Despite this the game remained tight as Nationals starter, Alex Kingsley, was equally stingy through 4 innings of work.

The Sox broke the scoreless duel in the fifth with a single tally, but the Nats responded in kind on Adam Karas sacrifice fly to score Jimmy Jungbauer.

The Sox rallied again in the sixth, scoring twice before Kingsley gave way to Kyle Knaust, who extinguished the rally by striking out three successive Sox with a runner in scoring position.

The Sox added a run in the 7th to expand their lead to 4-1 but the Nats answered with an RBI double from Jared Stengel that scored Kyle Kalkopf.

The game was won in the eighth.   After a leadoff walk to Dean Mlachnik, Erik Martwick doubled to put runners on second and third with none out.  A walk to Jimmy Jungbauer loaded the bases and Austin James followed with a groundout that brought the Nats to within a run.  Kyle Knaust then singled home Martwick to tie the game.    After a Sox pitching change, the rally continued.   James and Knaust both scored from third on successive wild pitches and the Nats assumed control at 6-4.

Knaust took the mound again in the ninth and worked around an error to made quick work of the Sox and lock down the victory.

Next up are the Genoa City RedDogs on Saturday.   The Nats will travel to Genoa City for a twinbill beginning at 1pm.

It took awhile, but the slumbering offense of the West Allis Nationals finally awoke Saturday afternoon as the Nats scored a 6-0 victory in game two of the day's DH.   Game one found the Nats on the short side of a 5-2 outcome.

Unlike Friday night, the Nationals were able to put runners on base in Saturday's first game versus the Redbirds.   Unfortunately, timely hitting was at a premium.   After Kyle Kalkopf scored the game's first run on a groundout by Jared Stengel, the team put runners on in every inning but failed to push them across.   Marinette had no such trouble, mixing in well placed bloops with liners to push 5 runs across against Nationals starter Curt Pryal.   

With the score 5-1 in the sixth, that futility finally ended.  Fourteen year old Alex Elliott came to the plate with two outs and runners on second and third and delivered his first career hit and RBI, a line single to left center field, scoring Kyle Knaust.

While that run proved to be too little too late, it did spark the team to a better performance in game two.   In a rain shortened affair the Nats tallied two runs in three of the first four frames to jump out to a 6-0 lead.   That proved to be more than enough as mother nature decided the High Life would start early.

Curt Pryal and CJ Herrforth led the way.   Pryal drove in 4 runs with a two run double and a two run single.   Herrforth, meanwhile, mowed down the Redbirds, allowing only one walk and one hit while striking out 2.

For the day, Kyle Kalkopf led the way, finishing with 3 hits, 2 walks, and an RBI.  Adam Karas added hits in each of the games.

The Nats now move into League Play, opening the regular season on Tuesday night against the rival West Allis White Sox at Zirkel Field.   First pitch is set for 7:30pm.   

West Allis arrived in Menasha Friday with hopes of building on a strong opening day performance.   The Menasha Macs had other ideas.

The locals struggled all night offensively against Menasha starter Matt Golden and came out on the short end of a 5-0 score.

Jimmy Jungbauer started on the hill for the Nats, but lasted only three innings as a tight strike zone contributed to a high pitch count.   Jungbauer allowed 3 hits and 4 earned runs while walking 7 and striking out 5.   Kyle Knaust relieved Jungbauer in the fourth and held the Macs to 5 hits and 1 run in 5 innings, walking 5 and striking out two.

The Nationals managed only 4 hits on offense.  Jimmy Jungbauer had 3 of them including a double.

Next up are the Marinette Redbirds.   The two squads square off for an afternoon DH on Saturday at Pedersen Ballpark in Marinette.  First pitch is set for 1pm.