Janesville Craig Crowned Division 1 State Champions
By Alex Cheban, lead writer
Appleton, WI-
Janesville Craig wanted to finish their near-perfect season in style, and that was with some gold hardware. They had a chance to do just that against Kimberly in the Division 1 state championship game on Thursday night.
This game was anything but an offensive showcase. The two pitchers, Tanner Haessly for Kimberly and Nick Cramer for Craig, were dealing shutout baseball for 4 ½ innings.
Janesville Craig broke through in the 5th inning as they got a very timely hit from McCauley Cox. He drove in two runs with a single to center field. They led 2-0 going to the 6th inning.
Kimberly led off with a Ben Carew double but they stranded him at second base in the top of the 6th.
Nick Blomgren came on in relief for Craig. He got the unusual 6 out save for them. He gave up 2 hits (one in each inning), but got the save as he struck out the last two hitters.
Nick Cramer threw 5 innings on 4 hits and gave up 0 runs. He only managed to strike out one 1 batter.
Tanner Haessly could have not thrown a better game for Kimberly as he went 6 innings gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits. He struck out 3 and walked two. He just got the short end of the stick as Craig got one timely hit.
This is Janesville Craig’s 4th state baseball title that they won; the last one came in 1998.
Kimberly was runner up back-to-back years now and they have been runner up 5 times in their school history.
