Norse baseball season ends in extra innings

They pushed it about as far as they could, but the Whitehall baseball season came to an end with a 7-6 loss in 10 innings to Thorp-Gilman last week Tuesday.

The third-seeded Norse fought throughout the game, but (2) T-G scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings with the score tied 7-7. Whitehall ran out of gas in the 10th as a walk was followed by two singles, the second of which gave T-G the win.

T-G went on to defeat Fall Creek in the regional final and played Eau Claire Regis in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Three Cumberland sectional on Tuesday of this week.

For Whitehall, the season ended with an 11-10 record.

T-G 8 Whitehall 7

After T-G took the lead in the bottom of the first, it was all Whitehall until late.

T-G scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning, but a two-run single by freshman Brayden Lisowski tied the game for Whitehall in the top of the second. Isaac Skoyen singled home Devon McCune to give Whitehall the lead in the third.

The Norse appeared to take control of the game in the fourth with four runs.

Brock Sluga led off with a single, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Chase Blaha. Devon McCune then singled before Eric Kleinhans hit into an error and Skoyen walked. Two runs scored on an outfield error as the Norse took a 7-2 lead with two innings left.

T-G began chipping away in the sixth with a two-out RBI single.

Whitehall had a hard time putting the game away in the seventh as three errors helped T-G score four runs — three of which came with two outs — to tie the game and force extra innings.

A walk and a balk gave the Norse a runner in scoring position in the eighth inning, but a strikeout ended the threat. That was the only runner they’d manage in the extra innings. T-G strung together three consecutive successful at-bats to win the game in the 10th.

Whitehall had eight hits in the game with both Sluga and Skoyen finishing with two.

McCune was mostly in control on the mound for the Norse, pitching into the eighth inning with four strikeouts while allowing one walk and five hits. None of the four runs charged to him were earned. Lisowski then finished the eighth with one walk and two hits. Blaha pitched the last two innings, allowing two walks and two hits, while striking out one.

The only earned run T-G scored in the game was the last one.