MILWAUKEE — Waupun couldn't ask for a better time to have Taylor Nehls get hot.
Nehls homered for the fourth time in three games as Waupun stayed tied atop the Little Ten baseball standings. Saturday's 10-3 bashing of eighth-ranked Milwaukee Lutheran set up games with co-leader Beaver Dam today and tomorrow that will largely determine the LTC title.
"They're really in the driver's seat," Waupun coach Kevin DeBoer said of the Golden Beavers. "We have four left and we have to battle.
"We'd love to have our pitching lined up back-to-back. At the bare minimum, we need to split."
BD (8-5, 7-3 LTC) needs only a split to clinch a share of the crown. Its games with Waupun (11-3, 5-3) finish the LTC slate for the Beavers, while the Warriors still have visit Hartford on Wednesday and host Milwaukee Lutheran May 20.
Waupun senior ace Tyler DeBoer went the distance and struck out eight to pick up the win. As much as coach DeBoer would relish the LTC title, he won't jeopardize the most important component of a successful Division 2 state title defense to do so.
Since switching to a larger bat three games ago, Nehls has driven in 11 runs and five of his six hits have been for extra bases. He got the Warriors started by punishing a hanging curve to left for a three-run shot in the first inning.
"Taylor's seeing the ball real well right now," coach DeBoer said. "Geez, we hit ball after ball hard."
The Red Knights (8-5, 5-4) got a run back in the first on three straight hits off of DeBoer. Waupun would push the margin to 5-1 in the second, starting with Joey Dolgner's triple to left.
Mitchell Bille drove him in with a groundout. When Jess Nickel's fly to center was dropped, Zach Tavs scored him with a single.
The Knights responded with two runs of their own, including Jordan Fliaor's home run to left. Waupun got one back in the third when Ryan Rasmussen ripped a double to right to score Jake Wojahn.
Four Knight errors led to a pair of runs in the fourth. Two more on the same play let DeBoer come all the way around to score along with courtesy runner Brandon Pluim in the fifth.
"Yeah, you can with one or two errors but you can't win with eight," Knights coach Bob Heinkel said. "Tyler settled down after that and we needed a bunch to catch up.
"Kevin's a real good hitting coach and they come out with hitters almost every year."
Rasmussen finished with three hits and two RBIs. Dolgner had two hits on the day.
"What would we do without those two?" coach DeBoer said. "They've had so many big games and they've made us a lot better."
Heinkel admitted that the loss was costly to his team's title hopes, especially considering how hard Waupun hit his ace.
"This was an important game and we needed to put pitches in the right spots," Heinkel said. "It's tough to come out down 3-0 after the first.
"We hung a curve and he's a good hitter."
DeBoer settled down and scattered four hits over the final five innings despite not being his sharpest.
"They're scoring a lot of runs on everyone," DeBoer said of the Knights. "They have good at-bats and make you work.
"Tyler's ball moves so much. People forget that Tyler's still young even though he's pitched a lot for us."
Bille is likely to get Monday's start. Barring rainouts, Ben Navis is likely to get a key start in the upcoming stretch.
Milwaukee Lutheran could be a possible sectional final opponent for the Warriors, who visit BD today.
WAUPUN 10, MILWAUKEE LUTHERAN 3
Waupun 321 220 0 - 10 9 0
Milwaukee Lutheran 120 000 0 - 3 9 8
Pitchers (ip-h-er-bb-so) - DeBoer (W; 7-9-3-2-8), Jorgenson (L; 4-8-5-1-3).
Leading hitters: W - Nehls 2x4, Rasmussen 3x4, Dolgner 2x4; ML - Walker 3x4. HR: W - Nehls; ML - Fliaor. 3B: W - Dolgner. 2B: W - Rasmussen; ML - Halstead. RBI: W - Nehls (4), Rasmussen (2).