Red Raiders’ rally too little, too late against defending champions

By TODD SOMMERFELDT | La Crosse Tribune

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. — As he walked to the plate, Central High School sophomore Bobby Juan had the weight of a baseball team in his shoulders.

The bases were loaded, there were two outs, and his Red Raiders trailed by four runs.

He just wanted to make solid contact, and he did by driving a hard grounder to the right of Kimberly shortstop Jayme Wells.

Central batboy Trevon Van Egtern, 7, consoles shortstop Cody Pfennig as Central fell to Kimberly 8-4 in the WIAA Div 1 state semi-final Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at the Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wis. Erik Dailly

But as the Papermakers showed all day at Fox Cities Stadium, they were up for a big play.

Wells sprawled out for the ball, corralled it and fired to first base to retire Juan and end Central’s season with an 8-4 defeat Tuesday in the WIAA Division 1 semifinals.

“He made an outstanding play,” Central coach Kent Van Egtern said of Wells. “There might not be another kid at this tournament that will make a play like that.”

The play ended a late Central rally that just couldn’t make up for a slow start that followed a morning quarterfinal victory over Beaver Dam.

Singles by JJ Blaschke and Lucas Warren to lead off the top of the seventh were followed by two outs, but Ryan Ledvina walked to load the bases for John Munson.

Munson, a senior left fielder, responded with his fourth hit of the game to score Blaschke and set the stage for Juan, who stepped to the plate with seven home runs — including a grand slam in the sectional finals — under his belt.

“That’s the last thing I wanted,” Kimberly coach Ryan McGinnis said. “I didn’t want to see Juan up there. He’s a good, good player, and he was the tying run.

“I knew I didn’t want to see that.”

But the Papermakers (20-4) built enough of a cushion early to hold off the Red Raiders (15-10), who scored all of their runs in the last three innings.

Kimberly, the defending Division 1 state champion, scored four times in the fifth to take a commanding 8-1 lead. It used three hits, two walks, one hit batter and one Central error to pull away.

The Papermakers also took control immediately by scoring three runs against central starter Lukas Penovich in the first inning. Penovich then gave up a solo home run to Brad Schreiber to lead off the third and was replaced by Drew Ghelfi.

“I didn’t want to work too much on the outside (of the plate),” said Penovich, who shut out Reedsburg in the sectional championship game. “I had to work inside a little more because the wind was blowing out to right. They were great at taking the ball to the opposite field.”

Central had trouble finding similar offensive success early. It didn’t advance a runner into scoring position until the fifth, and that was on Lucas Warren’s one-out double.

Mitchell Ghelfi drove in Warren with a single, and Juan tripled home a run and scored on a Penovich sacrifice fly in the sixth for Central’s first three runs.

But the Red Raiders had to scrap for everything it got against a team that won both last year’s title game and Tuesday morning’s quarterfinal by the 10-run rule.

“We lost to one of the best teams in the state today,” Van Egtern said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Todd Sommerfeldt can be reached at (608) 791-8208 or todd.sommerfeldt@lee.net

GAME RECAP

STAR: Central senior left fielder John Munson was 4-for-4 with three infield singles and an RBI against Kimberly and 6-for-8 with two RBI on the day.

STATS: Kimberly didn't make an error, and its pitchers walked only one batter in two games.

BOTTOM LINE: Central (15-10) won a game at a WIAA state tournament for the first time since 1998 and will return eight of the 10 starting players from the championship game next season.

For a gallery of photos from the WIAA state baseball tournament, click here.