The Menominee American Legion baseball team managed to score the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and hold on for a 2-1 win against Iola on Tuesday in Keshena.
“We got it done,” Menominee coach Brandon Frechette said. “Iola is a good team. They beat us over in their field. It came down to the end and we clutched up.”
After leading 1-0 through the first three innings, Menominee (6-4) allowed Iola (3-5) a run in the third.
The 1-1 tie would hold until the sixth inning, when Dallas Madosh reached on a base hit, stole second and advanced to third on a sacrifice by Walker Miller. After Lowell Chevalier walked, Scott Cerveny hit a ground ball to shortstop Nate Korb. With only one out, Korb made the throw home, but it bounced in front of catcher Steve Niemi and rolled past him as Madosh reached home plate.
With two out in the top of the seventh, Madosh walked a batter and hit two more to load the bases. That brought up Iola pitcher Cam Grunwald. With a full count, Madosh’s final pitch got past Grunwald’s swinging bat, ending the game.
“You don’t want to be in those situations,” Frechette said, “but that’s where you kind of find out what your team is about. Those are the situations that prepare you for the tournament, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”
Menominee scored in the first when Michael Pecore crossed the plate on a wild pitch. Korb hit an RBI single in the third to tie the game.
Tom Williams allowed one run on three hits, struck out seven and walked three in 4 2/3 innings of work, giving way to Madosh, who held Iola scoreless the rest of the way. He allowed one hit, struck out one and walked one.
“Dallas did good,” Frechette said. “We asked him to come in and throw strikes and that’s what he did. Tommy was hurting a little bit. He did good, he didn’t do bad pitching, but he was hurting a little bit so we had to get him out.”
Frechette said he hopes his team will get more of a killer instinct as the tournament nears.
“That’s one of the things we hope to get down by the tournament, being able to put teams away,” he said. “We had a little break. The few rainouts hurt us. They weren’t on the field for a while. Not to make excuses, but our pitchers haven’t been getting the work that we’ve wanted for them.”
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