Published: June 14, 2014
Battle for West Bend
Benders, 7 UP revive West Bend City Championship game
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Playing a game on Friday the 13th with a full moon overhead
made West Bend 7 UP manager Craig Larsen nervous and superstitious.
“This morning on the radio they brought up the same thing,”
he said. “I hadn’t thought about it (until then).”
When the game got going, there were some indications a bad
spell might be looming.
To make the night that much more interesting, a pair of bats
— not the wooden kind — were spotted flying near home plate late in the game.
At least the 7 UP players were more relaxed than Larsen and
when they got going; they didn’t let up in a 17-2 seven-inning rout of the West
Bend Benders at Regner Park.
“The No. 1 thing was to come out here and put on a good show
for the community,” Larsen said. “I’m happy with the way we looked.”
It was a good victory for the 7 UP on a couple of levels.
The first was it was against the in-city rival in the revival of The Threshold
Inc. Benefit Game, or the city championship. The other was it came ahead of a
key Land O’ Lakes Western Division game today against Sussex.
“It was pretty cool,” 7 UP’s Matt Schubert said. “It gives
us momentum going into the next game.”
There was another reason Larsen was a bit nervous — the
Benders beat the 7 UP last year.
“It was a trap game for us,” Larsen said. “We had to do
manufacture some runs to get our groove back.”
The 7 UP got rolling, scoring three runs (all unearned) in
the third, four in the fifth and six in the sixth.
“It was huge for us to come out here and make up for last
year,” Larsen said.
Tyler Adams was the starting pitcher for the 7 UP and picked
up the victory. He pitched six effective innings, scattering five hits,
allowing two runs, walking one and striking out four.
“I thought he pitched pretty good,” Larsen said. “I was a
little worried about how he was going to come back on short notice because he
threw 130 pitches Sunday.
“But this was a game he wanted. It was his old team.”
The 7 UP pounded out 13 hits on Benders starting pitcher
Jordan Paszck, who picked up the loss.
One of those hits was a grand slam by Schubert, a West Bend
East graduate.
At West Bend East, Schubert emerged as a go-to player for
the Suns, which was a bit unexpected. When he arrived for the season to play
with the 7 UP, Larsen quickly noticed Schubert was a new hitter.
“The kid has improved in every facet of the game,” Larsen
said. “It’s like he grew up 20 years. All of a sudden he doesn’t have a
weakness in his swing.”
Schubert plays on Concordia University’s baseball team and
the coaching staff there made some key adjustments to his swing and the 7 UP
are reaping the benefits.
Schubert is among the league leaders in hitting.
“I’ve been more patient,” he said about his adjustments.
“I’ve open up my stance at Concordia and that really helped.”
The Benders got their first two runners on base via base
hits. After that, the Benders offense was silent, managing just five
baserunners in six innings.
“Our goal now is to win the Land O’ Lakes Western Division,”
Larsen said. “We needed to be sharp tonight because Sussex, we beat them
already, is a big game.”
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