By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The result was the same as the first meeting with Lake Geneva this summer, but it’s clear the East Troy Post 188 Legion baseball team is making strides.
After dropping a lopsided decision to start the season, East Troy hung with the Lake Geneva 16U team last Thursday before it fell 6-5.
In the nightcap against Lake Geneva’s 17U team, East Troy fell 12-0.
East Troy is 6-17 overall, but 6-4 against 16U teams.
The loss in the opener was a bit of a disappointment, East Troy coach John Wick said.
“Lake Geneva roughed us up to start the season, and we had them beat (on Thursday) but we just didn’t finish,” he said. “(Andrew) Gross pitched extremely well, and we really did a good job batting at the plate.”
Lake Geneva pushed the tying and winning runs across the plate in the bottom of the seventh.
An East Troy error, a walk, a wild pitch and a double knotted things at 5-5, followed by another error that ended the game.
East Troy took a 1-0 lead on an RBI by Roman Evans that scored Quinton Erdmann, who singled, and stole second and third.
Post 188 added to its lead in the second inning, as Nate Fox singled, stole second and scored on a hit by Austin Daly.
Lake Geneva responded with three runs in the third, but Post 188 tied things in the fourth on hits by Jake Smith and Erdmann and took a two-run lead in the seventh.
Hits by Erdmann, Evans and Brendan Sullivan keyed the rally.
East Troy opened the week with a 13-2 win over Milwaukee.
Post 188 led 2-1 after the third inning on a two-run single by Evans that scored Drew Douglass and Matt Kisting before it exploded for seven runs in the fourth.
East Troy had eight hits in the frame. Jake Hannah started the inning with a single and as followed by Joe Krantz, Jake Smith, Douglass, Gross, Evans and Brandon Bakken.
The 16U squad ended things in the fifth via the 10-run rule. Krantz, Nate Ackerman and Jake Smith scored in the top of the inning, and Nate Fox closed the door on the mound.
“It was nice to get a few practices in before we played this one,” Wick said. “We were able to clean some things up on defense and settle down some hitting approaches. These guys continue to improve.”
