On upset alert, upset averted
Dan Larson / Sauk Prairie Eagle
Bob Spangler scores on a two-run single by Lucas Koenig to give the Twins a 3-1 lead just before Mikah Thingvold takes a throw from center fielder Mike Huber in the eighth inning Aug. 3.
By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle
As Lucas Koenig stayed loose near the batters box while Cazenovia held a conference on the mound, even he didn't expect to get a chance to hit.
"I guess I thought they were going to walk me," said Koenig, the Twins' clean-up hitter who came to bat with the game tied and runners on second and third with nobody out in the eighth inning Aug. 3.
"That's what I would have done if I was them."
But Cazenovia pitcher Rob Hemling convinced his team otherwise, and Koenig took advantage with a two-run single just out of shortstop Steve Tucker's reach that lifted top-seeded Sauk Prairie to a 3-1 win over No. 8 seed Cazenovia in a Home Talent League Northern Section quarterfinal playoff game at Sauk City Athletic Field.
The two-time defending section champions host fifth-seeded Waunakee in a semifinal game at 1 p.m. Aug. 10.
"I wanted to drive one in the gap and get it up in the air and get the sac-fly, but I hit it in a good spot, hard enough to get it through," said Koenig, who made up for stranding runners in scoring position to end the first, third and fifth innings in his previous three at-bats.
Added Reds' right fielder and manager Cole Duren: "The pitcher wanted to go after him. We wanted to walk him and didn't walk him, and it came back to hurt us."
Early on, it didn't look as though the Twins were going to find enough offense to avoid an upset. They managed just one hit through the first four innings.
But a three-hit burst in the fifth allowed them to tie the game at one.
"It was definitely a morale booster and momentum builder," said right fielder and manager Trent Sorg, who fouled off consecutive full-count pitches in a nine-pitch at-bat before lining a single to right that allowed Brent Dederich to score the tying run.
The Twins didn't manage a base runner in the sixth or seventh, but Sorg drew a lead-off walk to start the game-winning rally in the eighth.
Shortstop Bob Spangler followed with his second double of the game, allowing Sorg to move to third and setting up Koenig's two-run single.
"There was a real sense of urgency there to get a run in," Sorg said. "You hate to go into the ninth inning or possibly extra innings and rely on one run at that point."
Despite Sauk Prairie's struggles at the plate, Paul Lenerz and the defense kept the Twins in the game.
Lenerz gave up five hits through the first five innings and allowed the lead-off man to reach in the second, third and fourth, but he managed to hold the Reds to one run in that span.
In the second, he got Jimmy Hineman to ground to Spangler, who stepped on second to force out Mike Huber before throwing to first for an inning-ending double play.
The Reds got one in the third to take a 1-0 lead when Hemling scored just in front of second baseman William Gorsuch's throw to the plate on an RBI fielder's choice by Jeremy Meyer, but center fielder Chase Suchla limited the damage when he ran down a fly ball by Jesse Moore before making a leaping catch to end the inning and strand runners at second and third.
Lenerz worked around a lead-off walk in the fourth and got Duren to ground into a double play to end the fifth.
"Nothing felt quite right with anything I threw early on," Lenerz admitted, adding that his defense helped him through the struggles.
"It gives you confidence to go throw strikes, and if you do make a mistake they usually pick you up."
Lenerz allowed just two hits over the final four innings and finished with eight strikeouts.
Despite the loss, Duren said he was pleased with how his team played.
"I think we played some of our better baseball of the year," he said.
"We just came out and played loose. We really had nothing to lose.
And Lenerz agreed.
"No one was expecting anything from them, but they came in and they were fired up and played a great game."
| CAZENOVIA | SAUK PRAIRIE | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Meyer 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Salveson 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Duren rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Sorg rf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Tucker ss | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Spangler ss | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Moore 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | L. Koenig c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Huber cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Pacholke 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ihde lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Suchla cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hineman dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Schara lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hemling p | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Dederich dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Thingvold c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Gorsuch 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fish 2b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Lenerz p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 31 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 28 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| Cazenovia | 001 | 000 | 000 | - | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Sauk Prairie | 000 | 010 | 02x | - | 3 | 6 | 0 |
DP - Cazenovia 1; Sauk Prairie 3. LOB - Cazenovia - 5, Sauk Prairie 6. 2B - Hemling, Tucker; Spangler 2
| PITCHING | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Cazenovia | ||||||
| Hemling L | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Sauk Prairie | ||||||
| Lenerz W | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
HBP - Sorg by Hemling.