One day after hitting the lights out, the Oconto Falls High School baseball team couldn’t come through in the clutch in its next game.
It ultimately cost the Panthers their season.
Oconto Falls stranded 10 runners – six in scoring position — and had one player cut down at the plate in a 4-0 loss to Seymour in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal game June 3.
The loss was Oconto Falls’ third in Seymour in a span of 18 days after dropping a doubleheader, 7-5 and 2-0, there May 16.
“That’s been this ballpark,” Oconto Falls coach Charlie Rochon said. “We have not played our best ball here. We’ve stranded runners, we’ve made mistakes that are uncharacteristic. We did it in three games and they swept us in three games. Hats off to them, they got it done.
“We had opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of those opportunities. That’s what it comes down to.”
The Panthers got a solid start on the mound from Evan Sigmund, who went six innings and allowed three earned runs, didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.
Seymour (11-12, 7-9 Bay Conference) countered on the mound with sophomore left-hander Austin Marcks. Oconto Falls had faced Marcks in the 2-0 loss.
“We knew we were going to see him,” Rochon said. “He kind of shut us down hitting then. … He’s a left-hander and he’s kind of crafty, so it works out well for them.”
Marcks was pressured by Oconto Falls (14-9, 8-8 Bay), but he got out of every jam as the Panthers stranded runners in six of the seven innings.
Oconto Falls had runners on first and second with one out in the first inning, but Riley Gruetzmacher and Wesley Brabant both were retired to end the threat.
In the bottom of the first, Seymour scored the first, and ultimately winning, run as a two-out Oconto Falls throwing error brought in Seth Jefson from second base.
The Panthers stranded a runner at second in the second inning, and threatened in the fourth with Brabant on third and Tyler Hagemeier on second with two out. However, Marcks got Joey Wolford to strike out to end the frame.
With runners on second and third in the fourth inning, Seymour’s Reed Blake hit a two-out home run, launching it over the left-field fence to break the game open at 4-0.
“It was just instant energy for us,” Seymour coach Curt Jefson said.
Sam Shroyer started the fifth by reaching second on an error and Michael Manns followed with a single to center field and Shroyer came around third base. He stumbled and nearly made it home, but catcher Cole Clark applied the tag in a rundown for the out.
“He was digging,” Rochon said. “I’m not going to fault him, because he was hustling. That’s what I ask our kids to do, and he was doing that.”
That was a rally killer as Oconto Falls left Manns at second and Brett Ash on first.
The Panthers again had runners on first and second with two outs in the final inning, but Gruetzmacher went down swinging to end the game.
Rochon could only say positives after the game about his team’s season.
“We were a team that was supposed to finish dead last in the Bay and we finished in fourth place,” Rochon said. “I think they earned some respect and I think they earned what they got.”
“I’m very pleased. I couldn’t be more pleased. We finished 8-8 in the Bay, and we played Denmark. They’re ranked No. 1 in the state and it was 2-0, 2-0. We go against West De Pere, and they’re ranked in the top 10 in Division 1, and we lose 1-0 in the last game we played. We can play with anybody.”
Oconto Falls loses six seniors from this year’s squad: Gruetzmacher, Ash, Wolford, Dylan Woosman, Connor Sefcik and Dillon Boehmer.
“Next year’s group, I’m looking forward to them because they’ve got a little fire in their belly right now,” Rochon said. “The junior group coming up is a good baseball group, a very good baseball group. Good things are in front of us, but it’s always kind of sad to say goodbye to the seniors.”
