Citizen Staff/James Wold
Horicon coach Don Davidson enjoys the grand slam hit by Nick Scharpf (2) Sunday.
MAYVILLE — Two weeks after his return from a broken wrist, Nick Scharpf is hitting like a guy making up for lost time.
Scharpf blew open Sunday's final game of the Mayville Class A American Legion Baseball Regional with a fourth-inning grand slam. With four homers and 13 RBI in five tournament games, Scharpf led Horicon (18-3) to a 17-5 rout of the hosts and its second straight regional title.
"I feel more confident, that's for sure," Scharpf said. "I'm seeing the ball pretty good and I'm swinging at a lot better pitches.
"Two years in a row to Legion state is pretty cool."
Horicon will open the state tournament Friday morning at 10 a.m. in Brownsville (Lomira/Theresa will be the hosts). On its current nine-game winning streak, Horicon is averaging nearly 13 runs per game.
"The whole team hit the ball hard today," Horicon coach Quinn Heintz said. "Everyone's getting on base even when we don't score.
"I like where we're at heading into the weekend."
Horicon left 11 runners on base so it could have been even worse. Mayville emptied its pitching tank on the way to the final and ended its surprising run to the finals with its fourth loss to Horicon this week.
"We hung tough for a while but the grand slam broke our backs," Mayville coach Scott Hurst said. "We ran out of pitching to get to this point.
"Everybody's arms are sore. We battled hard but we played a good team with good arms and tough bats and I think they really have a chance to go someplace at state."
Mayville starter Tom Wellner walked five batters and hit three more before getting chased in the fourth. Cody Wasmund came on and gave up the slam to Scharpf, the first batter he faced, but Wellner hit the ninth hitter and issued two more free passes to load the bases.
Andrew Wasmund added a three-run blast in the fifth to put the game out of reach. It gave Lance Heintz, who tacked on a grand slam of his own in the seventh, plenty of cushion to pick up the win in six innings of work.
Heintz had a big day but it was Scharpf's tournament. He finished 6-for-12 with two doubles to go with his four home runs.
"He's been amazing this whole tournament," coach Heintz said. "When we hit the ball, we can compete with anyone in the state."
Wellner hit a solo home run for Mayville, which finished its season at 8-11.
HORICON 17, MAYVILLE 5
Horicon 102 432 5 - 17 13 2
Mayville 110 011 1 - 5 8 3
WP: L. Heintz (6 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 K)
LP: Wellner (3.1 IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 H, 5 BB, 1 K)
Leading hitters: H - L. Heintz 2-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBI; Wasmund 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Scharpf HR, 5 RBI; M - Wilderman 2B; Wellner HR; Wasmund 2-3, 2 RBI.