By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Lake Geneva American Legion Post 24 baseball team won its first four games of the summer season last week.
“The team pitching and defense were very good in our first week and several hitters got off to a hot start,” Coach Ken Johnson said.
The team’s first win was a 9-1 home victory over Waterford on June 6. Post 24 pitching struck out 10 batters and spread eight hits over seven innings of work, though they also walked nine batters. Coleby Curtis, Mason Skrede and Austin Pease all contributed to that cause. At the plate, the team made Waterford’s pitchers work by drawing nine walks and stealing four bases.
Curtis drew a walk, had a hit and scored a run. Skrede had a hit and scored a run. Juan Gonzalez had a hit, an RBI, drew a walk and scored twice.
“This was a good team win to kick off the season,” Johnson said.
Post 24 defeated Elkhorn 7-1 at home June 8. Post 24 led 2-1 after three innings but then expanded the lead to 5-1 and later 7-1 while the pitching again got the job done. Joe Gottinger threw a two-hit complete game and got on base three times by drawing walks that led to rallies. The team had 10 hits and drew five total walks. Johnson said they played excellent defense in support of Gottinger’s gem.
Curtis went two-for-four and scored twice, Pease went two-for-three with a run scored, and Lincoln Zweig had two hits and two stolen bases with a run scored.
Post 24 traveled to Waterford for a rematch of the June 6 game on June 9. Post 24 earned a sweep with an 8-5 victory.
Post 24 fell behind 5-1 and had to rally in the sixth and seventh innings for the win. Christian Schulz pitched a complete game and pitched better than the score indicated. With the score tied 1-1 after one inning, Post 24 gave up four runs in the next three innings aided by a Post 24 error and some good Waterford hitting, but Schulz recovered and shut Waterford down the rest of the game.
The offense was held in check most of the game but woke up with four runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to pull out the win. Schulz led the offense with four hits including a deep triple to right field, two RBI and a run scored. Skrede had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Gonzalez had a hit and an RBI and scored a run.
Post 24 concluded its week with an 8-4 road win at East Troy. The team again had to come from behind after East Troy took an early 3-0 lead. In the third inning, the team tied the score and took the lead in the fourth with three more runs.
Ryan Johnson earned the win, allowing four hits and striking out six over 4 1/3 innings. Pease got the save pitching the rest of the way and striking out seven while surrendering one unearned run. Schulz had two hits and three RBIs and scored twice. Curtis had three hits including a triple that just missed being a homerun with an RBI and a run scored. Shrede had two hits, an RBI and two runs scored. Brant Stahulak had two hits and scored twice.
Post 24 was scheduled to play Burlington and Genoa City this week and in the La Crosse Wood Bat tournament this weekend against Chippewa Falls, Holmen and Onalaska.
