Lake Country Lutheran Repeats as State Champion
By Alex Cheban, lead writer
Appleton, WI-
Lake Country Lutheran won back-to-back state titles with a 5-4 victory over La Crosse Aquinas on Thursday. Last year they were Division 4 champs and this year they took the Division 3 crown.
The Lighting struck first in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Jack Euclide doubled down the left field line to give them the early 1-0 lead.
Aquinas struck back in the top of the 3rd inning. The University of Illinois-Chicago recruit Alex Dee doubled to center field and drove in Rudy Rott to put the game back to even.
Lake Country Lutheran wanted that lead back, and they got it pretty quickly. CJ Teske hit a ground ball that Andy Dunham mishandled and it scored a run for the Lightning.
The game remained scoreless until the craziest 7th inning you will ever see at the state tournament.
Someone had to rise to the occasion in this game. Little did one team know, it was a young sophomore that would rise to the calling.
Ben Wilkins retired the leadoff man in the top of the 7th. Rudy Rott then singled with one out. After a walk, Alex Dee poked a line drive to left field to load the bases. The Blugolds tied the game on an Alex Schulte single to left field. Andy Gundersen hit a ball to third that was mishandled and led to another run. Jacob Horstman drove in an insurance run on sacrifice fly to left field and the Blugolds had a 4-2 lead going to the bottom of 7.
Lake Country Lutheran had their work cut out for them in the inning. Alex Dee came on for the close for Aquinas and retired the first hitter of the inning. Ryan Nehls single to right field with one out. Then Andrew Buran and CJ Teske both singled to load the bases. Jacob Hall then singled back up the middle and suddenly the Lighting only trailed by 1 run. The sophomore Joe Lipsky came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. The kid got his pitch and ripped it to right field to give the Lightning their second straight state title.
Then he did what very few players do when they hit a walk-off. He ran as fast as he could away from his team, all the way to the left field fence until his teammates finally chased him down and piled on top of him in celebration.
Aquinas got great starting pitching from Rudy Rott. He went 6 innings gave up 2 earned runs on 6 hits and walked and struck out one batter.
Ben Wikins was dealing for 6.1 innings but then ran into a bump in the road in the 7th. He gave up 2 earned runs on 7 hits with six strikeouts and 5 walks.
Lake Country Lutheran will now look to go for the 3 peat next year.
