One win away

Brady Ambrose
Times-Press

A shaky defensive effort by the #1 seeded Middleton Cardinals and a fabulous defensive play by second baseman Lucas Farber, combined with another strong pitching effort by Zach Downing sent the Reedsburg baseball team to the sectional finals Tuesday in LaCrosse.

The Beavers took advantage of four Middleton errors, including a huge second inning where the Cardinals committed three errors and also had two passed balls giving the Beavers a 3-0 lead that RAHS would hold on to the rest of the game, sending them to the sectional championship against LaCrosse Central.

The Red Raiders beat LaCrosse Logan as Bobby Juan led off the top of the eighth inning with a double to left-center field, advanced to third on a Lucas Penovich ground out and then scored the winning run on Drew Ghelfi's sacrifice fly to center field to give Central a 4-3 upset of Logan today in a WIAA Division 1 sectional semifinal at Copeland Park in the championship game which was scheduled for roughly 3:30 p.m.

Logan (18-4) threatened in the bottom of the eighth when Austin Lubinsky reached base on an infield hit off Central starter and winner Lucas Warren. Warren, who was impressive throughout, walked Adam Klemen but got pinch-hitter Damain Guggenbuehl on an infield ground-out to end the game.

The Beavers got another great effort from Downing as the right-hander gave up just six hits, one run and no walks to get the win.

Lucas Farber may have made the play of the year in the bottom of the seventh. After Nathan Wright led off the inning with a single off Downing, Romie Ripp hit a soft liner behind second that Farber speared. Farber wheeled and fired a strike back to first baseman Dillon Berg to double Wright off for a double play. The play then became even more significant when Travis Martin ripped a double to the corner that would have scored at least one run and probably two. Downing then got the next Middleton hitter to pop up to catcher Justin Huinker for the third out, giving the Beavers the 3-1 win.

As of press time Tuesday, Reedsburg's game with Central was in the fourth inning with the Red Raiders leading 1-0.

The Beavers got to the sectionals with another big win at Sauk Friday as Downing again was a factor in the game.

For the third time this season the Reedsburg varsity baseball team beat the Eagles, and for the third time it was Downing who got the win on the mound. But this win had a little more meaning to it. Trailing 5-1, the Beavers pounded out a 13-8 win to claim the regional championship.

The LaCrosse Tribune sports department contributed to this story.