One win from state
By Jim den Hollander
Seemingly minutes away from yet another quick exit from another home-hosted Regional event, the Wisconsin Dells Legion Post 187 baseball team was given a second chance. Did they ever take advantage of it. Early Saturday afternoon, having dropped its opening contest 12-8 to Mauston, the local Legion squad was battling for its Region 6 tournament life against East Troy...and failing 9-4. But a misfortunate play for the East Troy pitcher who apparently attempted to ‘spike’ Dillon Hess on a play at first base turned everything around. The East Troy player was ejected from the game immediately for trying to run over the foot of the Dells player with his spiked shoes and as a result, the East Troy team was left without enough players to field a team. The play actually rescued the Dells’ crew from the brink of elimination and gave them a chance to play again Saturday night. A come from behind win against Waterloo kept the scrappy team in the picture once again and they returned to Veterans Park Sunday with another tough assignment against Jefferson. At the time of the game, Jefferson with two wins was the lone undefeated team left in the six-team block while East Troy at 2-1 awaited the result. A pair of sixth inning runs carried the local crew to a 4-2 win, thanks to 6.2 innings of steady pitching from Alex Yacko and some inspired defense behind him. The loss dropped Jefferson to 2-1 and suddenly the team that was all but done early Saturday, had taken the backdoor into the tournament championship game. Sitting at 3-1, the Dells earned a bye into the championship while Jefferson earned the other spot, winning a semi against East Troy Sunday night. Game time for the championship game is tonight at 7 p.m. Winner qualifies for one of eight spots at the Legion ‘A’ State Championship tournament which begins on Wednesday in Mayville.