THE SPORTS LINE
By John Peterson of Williams Bay
April 21st
LG Badger (6-3) at Delavan Comets (3-4)
Final: Badger 5, Comets 0.
On a second surprisingly sunny but cold day for baseball, Badger hosted rival Delavan. Junior Riley Lussmyer took the mound for Badger. Delavan came out swinging. Delavan’s Neil Janssen hit an absolute laser to the left field wall for a double. The very next batter hit another rocket, but left fielder Zach Walton made a diving catch to save a run and close out the inning. Badger came to the plate swinging too. Leadoff hitter Matthew O’Grady beat out a ground ball to the backhand side of the SS. From there, Badger’s running game took over. Badger used its team speed to steal three bases and beat out ground balls to plate two runs in the first. In the top of the second, Delavan’s leadoff hitter Jacob Huff smashed a liner back at Lussmyer. Lussmyer’s reflexes managed to deflect the ball to shortstop Ryan McCarthy, who gathered it up and made the throw to retire the runner.
In the bottom of the second, Badger’s Ryan Bays hit a double to the center field wall. Zach Walton laid down a perfect bunt for a hit, moving to second on a throwing error and plating a run. M O’Grady doubled in Walton. Steaked to an early four run lead, Lussmyer used his fastball and slider mix to effectively fill up the strike zone. He kept the Delavan bats quiet for the rest of his outing. At the end of the third inning, the expected cold front blew through, chasing the sunshine away and dropping temperatures 15 degrees. The Badger and Comet bats turned just as cold.
Badgers replaced Lussmyer with Travis Bates in the top of the 5th. Bates side slinging style was too much for Delavan to handle. Bates carved up Delavan’s order with his deceptive angle and pinpoint accuracy. No runs were scored until the bottom of the 6th. Ryan Bays led off with an infield single, promptly stole second, and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder to the pitcher. In the top of the 7th, C Wolf came in and closed out the game for Badger.
Player of the Game: Lussmyer (Pitcher) – 4 IP, 2 H, 4 K’s, 0 runs.
2nd Player of the Game: O’Grady (center field) – 3/4, 2b, 2 RBI.
