By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Lake Geneva Badger baseball team pulled off two upsets in winning the WIAA regional championship but fell short of pulling off the hat trick against Waterford in the sectional semi-final on June 6.
The #10-seeded Badgers defeated #7 Westosha Central 6-2 and #2 Kenosha Tremper 5-3 to get to the sectional in Burlington, but they ran up against a team that had already beaten them twice before in Waterford (18-9). The Wolverines won this matchup 6-3.
The Badgers took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, one of the runs scoring on a fielder’s choice grounder by Brady Fields. Cliff Miller drove in the other run with a sacrifice fly.
Waterford answered back with a single run in the third, then took command with the five-run fourth inning. Fields got two Waterford hitters to ground out, but in both cases a run scored on the play. Zak Ksobiech followed with a triple with the bases loaded to put Waterford up 6-2.
The Badgers (11-14) scored once in the fifth but could get no closer.
Colton Surges led the way offensively with three hits and a run scored. Mason DuMez had two hits and scored twice. The Badgers outhit the Wolverines 7-6.
Fields took the loss pitching three and two-thirds innings. Fields gave up six hits and all six runs. Miller came on in relief and gave up not hits over two and a third innings. Austin Hoefs got the win for Waterford pitching five innings and giving up just one earned run.
Waterford went on to lose to #1 seed Burlington 11-0 in five innings in the sectional final.
Badger golf finishes eighth at state
The Badger golf team finished eighth at the WIAA state golf meet at University Ridge in Madison on June 5 and 6. The Badgers shot a combined 326 and were in ninth place at the end of the day on June 5 and moved up to eighth by shooting 318 on June 6 for a total of 644. Hartland Arrowhead won the state title with a 602. Arrowhead broke 300 on the final day with a 299 to finish four shots in front of Milwaukee Marquette.
Connor Duggan led the way for the Badgers with a two-day score of 159 (81, 78). Jackson Rademaker shot 160 (80, 80), Jonathon Duggan shot 161 (82, 79), and Blake Wisdom shot 164 (83, 81). Kirby Befort also competed and shot a 183 (88, 95). The top four scores make up the team’s score.
“The season has been very successful,” Coach David DeShambo said. “We won nine of the 15 events we played in this year.”
The Badgers swept the Southern Lakes Conference season for the third year in a row and placed three of the five players (Connor Duggan, Wisdom, and Rademaker) on First Team All-SLC. The other two were also honored on the Second Team (Befort) and honorable mention (Jonathon Duggan). This was also Badger’s third consecutive SLC, regional, and sectional championships.
“They are all very passionate about golf and love the game and the practice it takes to be good at the game,” DeShambo said.
