Shawano fell to Oconto Falls 2-0 Thursday in an American Legion Class AA Region 3 tournament game at Memorial Park.
Shawano pitcher Taylor Prey struck out 13 batters. His Oconto Falls counterpart, Hunter Magnin, fanned 15.
Prey struck out seven of the first nine batters — and would have had eight of 10 if not for an uncaught third strike. His performance was upstaged by Magnin, who had a slower start but got the strikes when it mattered.
“(Prey) pitched very well,” Shawano coach Will Gillis said. “He struck out a lot of guys. Magnin, we got opportunities to score, got guys on, guys in scoring position at third base, and he just buckled down and he threw really well. You knew that coming in that he was the top pitcher in their league.”
“Great pitching performance both ways,” Oconto Falls coach Chris Hilberg said. “They both gutted it out, hit the corners well, kept the ball down well. Both pitchers were just outstanding tonight.”
With the loss, Shawano will face Mosinee, which lost to Kaukauna 3-0 Thursday, at 2 p.m. Friday. Kaukauna and Oconto Falls will play at 5 p.m. The winner of the Shawano/Mosinee game will play the loser of the Oconto Falls and Kaukauna game at 8 p.m.
Oconto Falls broke the scoreless pitching dual in the fourth, when Mike Manns got a base on balls, stole second and came home on a Derek Zahn double to deep center field. Shawano center fielder Chase Henning couldn’t locate the ball.
“We had a fluke thing where there’s a certain time at night where it’s tough to see the ball,” Gillis said. “It happens pretty regularly. It happened a couple of times this year to other teams, too.”
Oconto Falls added another run in the fifth after loading the bases, setting up Colton Giese for an RBI single.
“There were a couple of balls up in the air that they didn’t get to, a couple of balls that we didn’t get to,” Hillberg said. “We fortunately got some runs out of it. The ones we missed, they didn’t capitalize on. It was a well-played baseball game.”
In the bottom of the frame, Shawano had an opportunity to score when Ty Schmidt reached on a walk and advanced to third on a Prey single. But Magnin then struck out Alex Frechette to end the inning.
Shawano had the top of the order leading off the bottom of the seventh. Zach Sousek hit a ball to deep left to get a double, but once again Magnin’s pitching stymied Shawano’s bats. Magnin struck out the next two batters, before Prey ground out to end the game.
“I’m still waiting for my heart to start beating again,” Hillberg said. “I’m pretty sure it stopped beat that whole last half of the bottom of the seventh there.”
“We had good at-bats,” Gillis said. “We just couldn’t get the big hit.”
Prey allowed four hits in the game and walked two batters. Magnin allowed six hits and walked three.
Grant Wainio led Shawano at the plate, going 2 for 3.
Alex Johnson and Dylan Woosman had Oconto Falls’ other hits.
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