By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON—The Ashwaubenon A’s withstood a furious charge to defeat the Green Bay Shockers 6-4 in a legion baseball game played July 10 at Ashwaubomay Park.
The A’s cranked out 14 hits with each batter in the rotation generating one hit on the night.
Ashwaubenon starting pitcher Jordan Casper went four innings giving up two runs and Aaron Bliek pitched the final three innings giving up two runs on three hits.
The Shockers, despite playing with a young squad, got out to a flying start.
With two outs in the top of the first, Hunter Petska doubled to center.
Liam Jones walked and then Brady Schadrie singled to center, bringing pinch runner Trevor Olmsted home, to put Green Bay up 1-0.
The hits continued to come for the Shockers.
Jimmy Kirkish singled to bring Jones home and put Green Bay up 2-0 after one half inning of baseball.
“We got off to a great start,” said Clint Petasek, Green Bay head coach. “We were aggressive and saw the pitches well.”
Ian MacLean got Ashwaubenon out of the gates with an eye-popping double to left field.
He scored after Logan Blazek took first on an error by the Shockers short stop bringing the A’s within one run.
“We didn’t panic and knew there was a lot of game left after they (Green Bay) scored right away,” said Ben Perry, Ashwaubenon head coach. “Getting that run helped us relax a bit and we settled in after that.”
In the top of the second, Ashwaubenon left fielder Will Adair made a catch that major leaguers possibly wouldn’t have snared.
Shockers Dom Mariucci hit a blistering ball to the warning track that for all intent purposes looked like it was going for multiple bases.
Out of nowhere, Adair laid his body out on the full run to make the catch.
The umpire took a second to make the out call as Adair flipped around with the ball in his mitt.
“That was the best defensive play I have ever seen,” said Perry. “Will has that athletic ability to do incredible things like that.”
A bit later on, Jon Wolcanski evened the game at two apiece, and Luke Jacobs forged Ashwaubenon ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth.
With the A’s holding a precarious one run lead, they unleashed their bats in the pivotal fifth inning.
Riley Siudzinski lined a single just past the outstretched hands of the Shockers third basemen.
Wolcanski and Jacobs hit back-to-back singles scoring Siudzinski putting Ashwaubenon up 4-2.
With two outs and an 0-2 count, Adair came through with his bat this time taking a low-slider to right field to score two runs and give Ashwaubenon a 6-2 lead.
“We had a lot of guys produce today and score runs,” added Perry. “This group has been doing that all year. Great balance with the hitting from our one through nine guy.”
The Shockers weren’t about to go into the night quietly.
Jake Petasek ripped a lead-off double to right field in the sixth, followed by a walk to Kirkish and single by Olmsted.
Suddenly the margin was cut in half at 6-4.
“I was proud of the way the guys battled back from the middle part of the game,” added Petasek. “We made it a game right to the end. We couldn’t get that one hit we needed when it mattered. Our guys keep getting better. The learning curve takes time.”
Bliek then delivered his best pitching down the stretch retiring the last two batters in the inning.
Green Bay put two men on base in the seventh inning but couldn’t produce any runs against Bliek as the A’s held on for the victory.
“We have a big week to finish out before Regionals,” said Perry. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves. One game at a time.”
Box Score:
Green Bay Shockers: 200 002 0—4
Ashwaubenon A’s: 110 130 X—6