Citizen Staff/James Wold
Wisconsin Lutheran's Jesse Stannard (9) beats the throw to Beaver Dam's Ezra Mitchell (6) Thursday.
Matt Eschenbauch remembers last year all too well.
With Beaver Dam in a position to challenge for the Little Ten baseball title, Wisconsin Lutheran swept the Golden Beavers.
What a difference a year makes.
Eschenbauch went 3-for-3, including two doubles and an early two-run single, propelling BD to a 10-3 rout and a sweep of the Vikings Tuesday in a battle of LTC co-leaders.
"It feels good to beat the team that knocked us out of the conference race last year," Eschenbauch said.
Winners of three straight in LTC play entering the day, BD (8-5, 7-3 LTC) took advantage of an early miscue by Wisco (7-6, 5-4).
With a runner on second and no one out, Ben Schmid struck out. However, the Vikings dropped the third strike and allowed Schmid to reach base.
Wisco pitcher Corey Henne then fanned the next two hitters for what should have been the third out.
That left the door open for Eschenbauch who dumped a two-run single into right field for an early lead.
"We got the key hits when we needed to," BD coach Joe Loizzo said. "We took advantage of opportunities to score runs."
Like the third inning, for example. Dusty Blanchard led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Mitch Minnig. But the Vikings blew a defensive assignment on the play and Blanchard raced to third. Two pitches later, Blanchard scored on a wild pitch.
While Wisco was struggling defensively, the Golden Beavers were much more sound. Third baseman Ben Schmid started a key double play in the third to thwart one rally and made two other quality throws to gun down runners.
One inning later, Eric Sackett, who went 2-for-4 from the plate, nearly threw out a runner at the plate. Though the throw wasn't quite on time, catcher Ezra Mitchell kept his head up and nailed Wisco's Andrew Rumler trying to reach third to end the inning.
"I through Ben Schmid had a great game defensively," Loizzo said. "All-in-all, we played really good defense."
That benefited hurler Nick Rechek, who scattered four hits and three earned runs in a complete-game effort.
"The pitchers are very positive to us in the field," Eschenbauch said. "That's huge for us. We've made some errors but other guys have stepped up and made plays."
Wisco cut the lead down to one in the top of the fifth.
BD quickly countered in the bottom of the inning with two runs then blew the game wide open in the sixth. Eschenbauch slammed his second double of the game to lead off and was sacrificed to third.
Blanchard followed with an RBI single and moved to second on a wild pitch, prompting a pitching change by the Vikings.
The move didn't affect the Golden Beavers one bit. Mitchell and Schmid connected on back-to-back RBI singles to end the scoring.
BD heads to Holmen for a Saturday doubleheader before returning home for conference showdown against Waupun Monday.
"We're in one of the driver's seats in the conference right now," Loizzo said. "Everything's in front of us."
BEAVER DAM 10, WISCONSIN LUTHERAN 3
Wisconsin Lutheran 000 120 0 - 3 4 1
Beaver Dam 021 124 x - 10 9 3
Pitchers (ip-h-er-bb-so) - Henne (L; 5.1-7-7-2-7), Wambach (0.2-2-2-0-0), Rechek (W; 7-4-3-4-5).
Leading hitters: BD - Eschenbauch 3x3, Sackett 2x4. 2B: WL - Melms; BD - Eschenbauch (2), Finke, Sackett.