Appleton East Walks Off Over Southwest
Jack Habeck throws a pitch for Appleton East (Spencer Flaten/Wisconsin Baseball Central).
APPLETON, Wis.—The Appleton East Patriots defeated Green Bay Southwest in walk-off fashion on Friday afternoon, 4-3 in eight innings.
In a game that saw both offenses fail to execute down the stretch, it was the Patriots who made the final breakthrough.
Southwest got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Senior Jake Jankowski drove in two runs with an RBI single to center field.
The Patriots responded in the bottom of the frame with three runs of their own. Parker Fischer hit a sacrifice fly before both Will Strauss and Andrew Lenz drew bases loaded walks to put Appleton East on top, 3-2.
The Trojans came back to tie the game in the fourth inning. Mason Frausto reached base on an error and eventually scored on a wild pitch to level the score.
Both teams got runners in scoring position throughout the later innings, but neither was able to push them across to score.
Appleton East had a chance to end the game in the bottom of the seventh when they got runners on first and third with nobody out. However, a botched squeeze play ensued which saw the batter pull back on a bunt attempt while the baserunner got caught stealing home. The Patriots got another runner to third in the inning, but couldn’t plate him.
The Patriots threatened again in the bottom of the eighth and eventually capitalized. A leadoff walk by Fischer and a single by Lucas Schulze put runners on first and second with nobody out. Braden Hutter then dropped down a bunt to move the runners over. The throw to first on the play was dropped, which allowed Fischer to score on a close play at the plate.
The game was well-pitched, but three errors by each team did a lot of damage to the pitchers. None of the runs scored by either team were earned.
Jack Habeck pitched four innings for the Patriots and took a no-decision. He allowed three hits and walked four while striking out five. A.J. Sweetalla pitched four shutout innings in relief and scattered two hits to go with two walks.
Bret Whiffen pitched four innings for Southwest and allowed three runs on three hits and four walks. Isaac Way pitched the final three innings and allowed one run on three hits and four walks.
Schulze led the Patriot offense with a 2-for-4 performance. Strauss went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. Cameran Crawford went 1-for-2 with a walk for the Trojans.
Appleton East moved to 2-4 this spring with the win. Southwest fell to 2-2.
