Beaver 9 wins 3-2 thriller

Brady Ambrose
Times-Press

REEDSBURG—With a 3-2 extra inning win over Waunakee Tuesday, the Reedsburg varsity baseball team improved to 7-1 in the conference and are now clearly the team to beat heading down the home stretch.

Dillon Berg's game winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Jeramy Greenwood, who had singled and moved to second on a Mike Huber walk earlier in the inning. Huber provided the Beavers with some early dramatics as the senior center-fielder put RAHS up early with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first off Warrior starter Matt Adler.

But Adler and Reedsburg's Travis Schrank then got involved in a classic pitchers dual. Adler settled in and kept the Beavers in check for the next five innings, and Schrank, despite throwing 73 pitches thru the first five innings, allowed just four base runners until the top of the sixth. Schrank gave up a lead off double to Matt O'Brien and a single to Brandon Spahn. Dan DiFrancesco followed with a base hit that scored O'Brien, but Spahn was thrown out on the play for the first out of the inning. Brad Bastien followed with a fielder's choice but Schrank retired Adler on a grounder back to the mound for the second out. Matt Follen, the #9 hitter in the Waunakee lineup, then singled off Schrank to tie the game as DiFrancesco scored.

The Beavers than had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the seventh to put the game away, but came up empty.

With one out Mike Lennon singled, and Jeramy Greenwood sacrificed Lennon to second. With two outs Mike Huber and Dillon Berg both walked to load the bases, but Ethan Dempsey grounded out to end the threat with the score still tied at 2-2.

Schrank retired the Warriors in order in the top of the eighth inning, but Adler, after giving up a one out double to Justin Huinker, retired Schrank and Lucas Farber on ground outs.

After Schrank gave up two straight walks with one out in the top of the ninth, Coach Dennis Schommer pulled the Reedsburg right hander and called on Zach Downing to close the deal. Downing threw seven pitches and retired the only two batters he faced to get the Beavers out of the late jam.

The top of the Reedsburg order then won the game in the bottom of the ninth. After Lennon led off with a fly ball to left, Greenwood singled and Huber drew his third walk of the game, and Berg ripped the game winning base hit, his only hit of the game, to give Reedsburg the 3-2 win.

The Beavers are back in action today as they host Verona in a double-header, slated to start at 9 a.m.