Oconto Falls could not get the ball to fall when it needed to, losing 2-0 to Iola in the American Legion Baseball Class A regional championship game Sunday in Clintonville.
Oconto Falls (17-8, 7-3 Fox River Valley-North) loaded the bases in three of the first four innings and stranded 12 base runners in the game.
In the first inning, Dalton Curl flew out to left field with the bases loaded. In the second, Mike Manns flew out to center, stranding three. And in the fourth, Manns hit a hard liner that right fielder Scott Aasen made a nice play on.
Oconto Falls hit a lot of sharp line drives throughout the game, but they were often right at a defender.
“They threatened,” Iola coach Brian Korb said. “It just magically happened to be hit right at some players.”
Evan Sigmund allowed two hits and held Iola scoreless the first four innings. He took the loss, pitched five total innings, allowed two runs, walked two and struck out four.
Iola broke out in the bottom of the fifth. Jayden Sivertson drew a walk to lead off the inning and scored on an Aasen one-out double into the left center field gap. Brady Snyder followed up with a single to score Aasen, to give Iola (10-7, 6-7 Central Wisconsin American Legion) a 2-0 lead.
Snyder produced six shutout innings, leading up to a dramatic seventh inning.
After a one-out single to Manns, Snyder swapped positions with catcher Cam Gruenwald, who induced clean-up hitter Wes Brabant into a groundout. Gruenwald allowed a single to Connor Sefcik (2 for 3, double) to put the tying run on base, but buckled down to strike out Curl to end the game.
Snyder picked up the win. He allowed five hits and two walks and struck out three in 6 1/3 innings. He was also able to pitch around three defensive errors by making big pitches with two outs and runners on base.
“Brady was fantastic,” Korb said. “He had a really live fastball and was wildly effective.”
Despite clutch-hitting struggles, Oconto Falls coach Chris Hillberg was impressed with the team’s error-free defense.
“This is the best game I’ve seen them play all year,” Hillberg said. “You give it 100 percent sometimes and it just doesn’t go your way … it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Oconto Falls’ Hunter Magnin went 2 for 3.
“Up until now the season was awesome,” Hillberg said. “We went 17-8, 7-3 in the conference mostly against opponents in higher classes. I expected to win.”
In five of his nine coaching seasons, Hillberg has come within one game of the state tournament.
Iola faces Wisconsin Dells in the state tournament at West Salem on Friday.
Iola “hit the ball better than anyone in the tournament,” Hillberg said. “I think they’ll do some damage at state.”
