West Bend All-Stars hold off rally

Date: July 18, 2013

LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL — JUNIOR LEAGUE DISTRICT POOL PLAY: WEST BEND 13, GRAFTON 8

West Bend All-Stars hold off rally

West Bend nearly blows 8-1 lead

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor

West Bend All-Stars manager Michael Fleischman could have sworn he was having an episode of déjà-vu.
West Bend held on for a 13-8 victory over Grafton on Wednesday in the All-Stars’ second pool-play game of the Wisconsin Little League District 1 tournament in West Bend.
The All-Stars had to hold off a rally by Grafton, which trailed 8-1 after three innings.
Sound familiar?
In Tuesday’s pool-play game against Glendale, West Bend trailed 9-1 after three innings.
“I thought, when I went into the dugout when we were winning 8-1, I should tell them, ‘Just remember last night. It’ll come back to haunt us,’” Fleischman said. “I didn’t say anything and sure enough, we let them get back into it.
“But that’s baseball. That’s 13-year-old baseball.”
On Tuesday, West Bend exercised plate discipline to work its way back into the game and pull out a 13-9 victory.
On Wednesday, Grafton showed more discipline at the plate. Through five innings, Grafton forced West Bend to throw 115 pitches. Grafton only threw 64 pitches in that span.
Grafton had seven combined walks in the third and fourth innings. But it was also hitting the ball, with 10 of its 12 hits coming in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
For the game, Grafton threw 105 pitches; West Bend threw 147.
“Give their pitchers credit,” Fleischman said. “They threw strikes. Our kids, when they see a strike, they go after it. We’ve got aggressive hitters. That’s what we’re known for.”
Grafton scored the game’s first run with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning.
In the top of the second, Kyle Yochem got things going for West Bend, hitting a two-run home run off the scoreboard in left field. Then in the third inning, West Bend scored six runs to take what seemed to be a commanding 8-1 lead. Grafton came back in the bottom of the fourth with six runs of its own to draw to within one run at 8-7.
“We had a little lull. We got a little complacent,” Fleischman said.
The teams traded runs in the sixth. Canon Melstrand hit an RBI sacrifice fly to center to make the score 9-7 in the sixth.
And in the seventh, West Bend scored four runs, which made the bottom of the seventh inning a bit more bearable to watch.
RBI singles by Nathan Schubert and Karl Lemke stretched West Bend’s lead to 11-8. Schubert laid a suicide squeeze bunt and beat the throw to first for his RBI. Schubert had his bat almost in the dirt just to get the ball in play. Ethan Wedemayer also had an RBI on a suicide squeeze to make it 13-8.
“I can’t tell you how huge that was,” Fleischman said. “That’s been sort of our game. We play a little bit of small ball when we need to. We had one unbelievable suicide squeeze by Nathan Schubert. That was a fantastic bunt.
“Ethan Wedemayer, who’s been doing it for us all year, laid down another really good suicide (squeeze). Those were two runs that gave us a cushion that were invaluable.”
Grafton made a couple attempts to either tie the game or take the lead, but Alex Rondorf was up for the challenge. The big moment came in the sixth when Grafton’s first three batters reached base. Grafton managed just one run as Rondorf struck two of the final three batters in the inning.
“Alex is someone we like to have in there because she throws strikes,” Fleischman said. “She throws the ball really well, she throws a really nice offspeed pitch and throws it for a strike.” Also picking up hits for West Bend were Nathan Fleischman, who was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and a walk, Rondorf and Joe Michels, who is 3-for-4 with an RBI in two games of the tournament.
Pool play wraps up today when West Bend plays Shorewood at 8:30 p.m. in West Bend.

WEST BEND 13, GRAFTON 8
West Bend.............................................026 001 4 — 13 9 2 Grafton...................................................100 601 0 — 8 12 4
Pitchers — WB: Cole Surprenant (2 2/3IP, 2H, R, 3BB, 2K), Carter Mayer (1/3IP, 3H, 6R, 3BB, K), Alex Rondorf (W, 3IP, 7H, R, BB, 4K), Nathan Fleischman (IP, K); GRA: Mitch Macek (L, 3 2/3IP, 5H, 8R, 6ER, Jalen Lowdermilk (1 2/3IP, H, R, BB), Matthew Fischer (2/3IP, H, 3R, 2BB), Jonny Holdway (IP, 2H, 4R, K).
West Bend hitters — Karl Lemke 2-5 (2B, RBI), Alex Rondorf 1-2, Nathan Fleischman 3-3 (3 R, BB), Kyle Yochem 1-2 (HR, 2 RBI), Joe Michels 1-1, Nathan Schubert 1-2 (RBI)