Marathon pitchers put Blugolds on their heels in state title game

By TODD SOMMERFELDT / La Crosse Tribune

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. — The Aquinas High School baseball team made a big season out of challenging opposing defenses.

The Blugolds hit the ball hard all season and forced their opponents to make big plays if they wanted to win.

Marathon could be a team that was up for that challenge, but it never had to prove it en route to beating Aquinas 3-2 for the WIAA Division 3 state championship Friday morning at Fox Cities Stadium. The line drives that generally ricochet off the Aquinas bats were replaced by easy fly balls and strikeouts as the Blugolds (21-4) came up short in their bid for a second straight baseball title.

“I think we were trying to do too much with the ball,” Aquinas first baseman Zach Rickaway said. “They weren’t throwing very hard, and I think we were trying to crank on everything and hit it out of the ballpark.”

That didn’t work.

All of the scoring took place on Thursday, when the game was suspended due to weather in the top of the third inning. Neither team was able to add anything to what it did in the first two innings.

Aquinas grounded out twice in the game. It had eight hits, but 12 of its outs were made on fly balls and six of them by strikeout. Rickaway and James Knutson had two hits apiece.

“I think it was a little bit of anxiousness,” Aquinas coach Scott Bagniefski said. “A lot of that came down to falling behind (in the count) and the pitches they made.”

Marathon pitchers Tyler Hamann, Nick Blume and David Schreier were able to get curveballs and changeups over the plate for early strikes, and that put the Blugolds on their heels immediately on most of their at-bats.

“We couldn’t attack the plate like we’re used to doing,” Bagniefski said. “These were the types of pitchers we’ve been afraid of because they’ve shut us down throughout the year.”

Aquinas scored at least 10 runs 14 times this season, but it wasn’t even able to approach that against the Red Raiders.

A two-run single to right field by Bobby Kachel on Thursday was all the Blugolds could get.

Two RBI singles by Ben Heindl and another by Schreier on Thursday held up for Marathon, who is coached by Westby and UW-La Crosse graduate Steve Warren and won its first state baseball title since 1992.

“All we wanted to do is prove that we’re just about as good as they are,” Warren, a college teammate of Bagniefski, said of the Blugolds. “Gold trophy, silver trophy, it didn’t matter. We wanted to prove that we could play on Aquinas’ level.

“I think we did that.”

Aquinas had a chance to tie in the seventh, which was led off by a Sam Pederson walk and Cory Vegel groundout that sent Pederson to second.

Schreier then struck out Rickaway swinging and Kachel on a fly ball to left field to end the game.

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

DIVISION 3 CHAMPIONSHIP

MARATHON 3, AQUINAS 2

Marathon 120 000 0 — 3 6 0

Aquinas 200 000 0 — 2 8 0

MARATHON (23-3)

Schreier, 3b/p, 4-2-1-1; Seubert, ss, 3-0-1-0; Kaldunski, 1b, 2-0-0-0; Be. Krautkramer, cr, 0-0-0-0; Hamann, p/2b/3b, 3-0-0-0; Heindl, lf, 3-0-2-2; Ahles, rf, 2-0-0-0; Stanley, dh, 3-0-0-0; Br. Krautkramer, c, 0-0-0-0; B. Blume, cf, 2-1-1-0; N. Blume, 2b/p, 3-0-1-0. Totals 25-3-6-3.

AQUINAS (21-4)

Pederson, c, 3-1-1-0; Vegel, lf, 4-1-1-0; Rickaway, 1b/p, 4-0-2-0; Kachel, rf, 4-0-1-2; Favre, 3b, 3-0-0-0; King, ss/p/2b, 3-0-0-0; J. Knutson, dh, 2-0-2-0; Bahr, p/ss, 0-0-0-0; Kammel, 2b, 2-0-1-0; Coady, rf, 0-0-0-0; Czeiska, cf, 3-0-0-0. Totals 28-2-8-2.

2B—Seubert, B. Blume, N. Blume, Rickaway, J. Knutson.

Pitchers

Marathon: Hamann 5ip, 7h, 2r, 2er, 5k, 1w; N. Blume 1ip, 1h, 0r, 0er, 0k, 1w; Schreier, 1ip, 0h, 0r, 0er, 1k, 1w.

Aquinas: Bahr 5ip, 6h, 3r, 3er, 3k, 6w; King 1 2/3ip, 0h, 0r, 0er, 1k, 3w; Rickaway 1/3ip, 0h, 0r, 0er, 1k, 1w.

WP: Hamann. LP: Bahr.