Reedsburg pummels Portage, 13-2

By Kevin Morales
Capital Newspapers

PORTAGE—Portage's run at the end of the high school season and into Legion play revolves around its seasoned starting pitching.

So it wasn't surprising a powerful Reedsburg team would thrive against a young pitcher making his first start in two months.

Reedsburg's varsity Legion team scored five runs in the second and six more in the third as it powered past host Portage Tuesday 13-2 in five innings at Bidwell Field.

Mike Huber went 2-for-3 with five RBIs for Reedsburg.

Portage starter Brad Johnson allowed eight earned runs on eight hits and six walks in two-plus innings for the loss.

Ethan Greene relieved Johnson four batters into the third inning and surrendered five earned runs on six hits and one walk.

"What that came down to tonight was that's a conference championship graduate senior team," said Portage coach Jim Walker, referring to Reedsburg's Badger North Conference title this season. "Talent for talent, we just didn't have enough to stay with them. Now are we 11 runs worse than them? No, gosh no."

Reedsburg threatened from the very first inning, when Johnson walked three batters before striking out Ethan Dempsey to end the inning.

Reedsburg loaded the bases again in the second, this time on three singles to start the inning. Mike Lennon and Jeremy Greenwood earned run-scoring walks before Huber knocked a two-run single and Justin Huinker a one-run single to give Reedsburg a 5-0 lead.

Huber belted a three-run double to the right-center wall in the third before Reedsburg scored three more to take an 11-0 lead.

"Not really nervousness, I've been looking forward to starting for a while," Johnson said. "I suppose I got squeezed a little, having a little tough time finding the strike zone. Once you start getting down like that, you ... start thinking about more than just throwing.

"Summer's more working on things, getting practice for next season. So that's a good outing to learn from."

Portage's pitchers aren't the only ones who have had trouble with Reedsburg, as it has outscored opponents 23-2 over the last two games.

"They're just finally starting to gel as a team," Reedsburg coach Pat Farber said. "We've been struggling but generally when they're on, they're tough to beat."

Meanwhile, Reedsburg's first team all-Badger South pitcher Zach Downing kept Portage in check for most of the night, earning the complete-game win.

Downing allowed three hits in the fourth inning, but scattered two hits over the other four. He struck out just three batters and induced seven fly-ball outs.