By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON—Jacob Buchberger’s two run shot in the bottom of the fourth lifted the Green Bay Booyah to a 2-1 victory over the Wisconsin Woodchucks in a game played July 27 at Capital Credit Union Park.
“I saw the pitch real well and got fortunate it cleared the wall,” said Buchberger. “Even though the numbers don’t show on the scoreboard, I felt like we hit the ball well.”
Garrett Martin picked up the win for the Booyah pitching seven complete inning, giving up one run, on five hits.
Beau Nichols took the loss for the Woodchucks going eight innings giving up only three hits and two runs.
Nick Kreutzer was the only player on either side to generate a hit in the first couple of innings as both pitchers retired the order with relative ease.
In the top of the third, the Woodchucks built some momentum after Kyle Simmons singled to left field with two outs.
TJ Reeves then took first on an error by Booyah shortstop Logan Thomason.
Both Simmons and Reeves advanced to second and third collectively after a wild pitch by Martin, but fortunately for Green Bay, Martin was able to strike out Adam Frank to escape the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth with no score and two outs, Buchberger gave the 2,047 fans in attendance something to cheer about when he took an inside fast ball to center field and a two-run homer to give the Booyah a 2-0 lead.
Martin continued his stellar pitching through the sixth inning where he picked up his fourth and fifth strike outs of the evening to keep the Booyah out in front by two runs.
“Garrett mixed up his timing well tonight,” said Buchberger. “He got that first strike many times against their batters and it kept them off balance most of the night.”
In the top of the seventh, the Woodchucks made their move.
Cameron Swanger was hit by a pitch and then Alec Arnone walked.
Despite Santino Miozzi hitting into a double play, Lawrence Cicileo stepped in as the next batter and ripped a single to right field to score Swanger and cut the Booyah lead to 2-1.
With a baserunner on first in the top of the eighth, and the Woodchucks looking to even the game, Green Bay right fielder Chris Williams made a huge-leaping catch near the warning track to save an out and perhaps a game-saving run.
Will Saxton came in and pitched the final two innings to get the save for the Booyah who have won two straight and sit in second place in the latter part of the season.
“We’re playing pretty good baseball right now,” added Buchberger.”These fans come out every home game and you really could feel the energy tonight down the stretch when we needed it most.”
Box Score:
Wisconsin: 000 000 100—1 7 2
Green Bay: 000 200 00X—2 3 1