THE SPORTS LINE
—By John Peterson of Williams Bay
April 27, 2023
Lake Geneva Badger (9-3) v. Wilmot (4-5)
Final: Lake Geneva Badger 5, Wilmot Panthers 2.
The Badgers played host to conference foe Wilmot Panthers on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. Sophomore lefty Gavin Stewart took the hill for the Badgers and retired the Panthers in order to set the tone for this game. The Badgers jumped out early, a pattern seen often this year, scoring four runs in the first inning. Matthew O’Grady jumped on the first pitch for a single to left. Wade Blakley doubled to right scoring O’Grady. Blakley immediately stole third and was driven home by a single to right by Crete Slattery. After three batters, Badger was up 2-0. But the scoring did not stop there. With a runner on first, Sam {Polyock hit a single to right. Ryan McCarthy followed with a single to left plating a run. An error loaded the bases. Another run was scored on a fielder’s choice. Badger lead 4-0 after 1 inning of play.
Stewart ran into trouble in the second inning, loading the bases with no outs. Then Stewart reached for a little extra and struck out a batter for the first out. He induced a weak fly to center for the second out, and struck out the next batter for the third out of the inning. Pitching took over for both teams. Until the 4th inning. A combination of weak hits and an error scored a run for Wilmot. In the bottom of the 5th, Badger tallied one more run on a single by Stewart followed by a triple to right by McCarthy. Travis Bates relieved Stewart for the 6th inning. He surrendered one run on a combination of walks and singles. Riley Lussmyer came in with one out and the bases loaded to relieve Bates. He struck out Wilmot’s All-State player, Marco Faletti, then induced a ground ball to 2nd base to end the inning. Lussmyer closed out the game for a Badger 5-2 victory, moving Badger’s conference record to 6-2, 10-3 overall.
Player of the game: Gavin Stewart (P) 4.1Gavi IP, 1 R, 7 K’s
