By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School baseball team split two games against the same opponent last week in Southern Lakes Conference play.
The Elks defeated Union Grove 3-2 April 28 at home and lost 5-4 April 30 at Union Grove.
Elkhorn played Westosha Central (9-4, 4-2 SLC) Tuesday at Salem and Thursday at home in SLC contests. The Elks play Milwaukee Hamilton (7-6) at Madison’s Warner Park Friday in a non-conference game.
The Elks (3-9, 2-5 SLC) and Broncos played to a scoreless tie in regulation, and went into extra innings in April 28. The Broncos scored two runs in the top of the eighth before the Elks rallied for three in the bottom of the eighth and a walk-off win.
Joe Konopski drove in Dylan Peterson and Patrick Glogovsky for the tying and winning runs.
“You would have thought they won the state tournament, which is good,” Elks coach Jon Anzalone said. “They were excited. It was good for them.”
Konopski finished with two hits. Nik Kimball threw a complete game in the victory and tallied five strikeouts.
“Kimball did a good job,” Anzalone said. “He went the distance, and his strike to ball ratio was 73 strikes to 41 balls.”
Anzalone said Kimball did a fine job getting the Broncos hitters to put the ball in play, and said the Elks came up with some big defensive plays in support of Kimball.
The Elks led 3-2 in the 5-4 loss April 30 until the Broncos scored three runs in the fifth inning.
The Broncos (7-4, 3-3 SLC) loaded the bases. Anzalone said the Elks drew the infield in, but Union Grove scored a run when a play at the plate failed after an infield hit.
“One out would have become two, and they would not have scored,” Anzalone said.
The Elks got the second out on a force at home plate in the next Union Grove at-bat. The Broncos then got a base hit in their next at-bat and scored two runs.
Anzalone said the Elks’ Brandon Komar pitched well in defeat.
“Our pitching and defense have been doing a really good job,” Anzalone said. “They’ve been keeping us in games.”
