Arcadia ends legion season among state’s best
Arcadia catcher Carson Martin turned to throw out a Viroqua batter after a bunt during second inning of the opening game of the American Legion baseball state championship tournament in Prairie du Chien. Arcadia fell 8-0 to Viroqua. (Times photograph by Benjamin Pierce)
Arcadia Post 17 pitcher Connor Weltzien delivered a pitch to a Viroqua batter during Arcadia’s opening game of the legion state tournament last Friday in Prairie du Chien. Post 17 fell to Viroqua 8-0. (Times photograph by Benjamin Pierce)
The Arcadia Tickfer-Erickson American Legion Post 17 baseball team ended its 2023 season last weekend with a pair of games at the American Legion Class A state championships in Prairie du Chien.
Post 17 lost both games in the double elimination A-class tournament, which continued into Tuesday.
Arcadia was unable to score a run against Vroqua, the defending state champions, on Friday before Stratford snuck past Post 17 in their second game on Saturday.
Post 17 finishes the year with a 15-11 record.
Viroqua 8 Arcadia 0
The defending champs held Arcadia’s offense at bay in the tournament opener last Friday and capitalized on defensive miscues in the fourth inning to take the win.
Viroqua scored a run in each of the first two innings to snag an early lead, and Post 138 rattled off five runs in four at-bats during the bottom of the fourth inning.
Three Viroqua pitchers combined to limit Arcadia to three hits, and Tyler Quackenbush tossed seven strikeouts for the 138ers.
Connor Weltzien started for Arcadia, throwing four strikeouts and allowing seven hits with three earned runs against.
Griffin Olson of Viroqua (two) was the lone batter with more than a single hit in the game.
Stratford 2 Arcadia 0
Arcadia’s second game at the tournament was a much tighter affair, but it was Post 17’s opponent that got the better of the final score.
Both sides played to a scoreless game until the bottom of the third inning, when Stratford opened the scoring with a Jack Tubbs line drive that brought home Henry Zaleski.
Stratford doubled its lead in the bottom of the fourth on a walk with the bases loaded. Arcadia found itself in scoring position multiple times in the game but was not able to reach home.
Max Sobotta, Prestin Scow and Maverick Drazkowski each had hits for Arcadia, which got a little more than three innings of pitching from Login Scow.
Scow allowed five hits with a pair of walks, and teammates Prestin Scow and Sobotta (one strikeout) held Stratford hitless the rest of the way.
