West Salem trumps G-E-T in Coulee baseball

With the game circled on the calendar and an outright Coulee Conference championship on the line, the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School baseball team couldn’t slow down West Salem’s offense last Monday.

The Red Hawks tried to overcome the offensive display from the Panthers (11-9, 9-3 CC) last week, tying the game at two in the bottom of the second inning before getting within a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth.

But West Salem racked up 14 hits and scored in each of the first six innings to take an 8-4 win and shutter G-E-T’s hopes of an individual conference title. The win avenged a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Red Hawks in April.

Chris Calico of West Salem paced all players with three hits, a pair of doubles and three scores.

Six Red Hawks supplied a hit. A double from Cole Williams was the lone extra base hit for G-E-T, which started Collin Handke on the mound.

Handke threw six innings, allowed five earned runs and threw five strikeouts. Jack Beedle closed the game by not allowing a hit and striking out one batter in the seventh inning.

Onalaska was set to visit G-E-T (12-7 overall, 8-3 Coulee) on Monday. The Red Hawks could still share a Coulee title with West Salem by earning a win when they close their conference slate with a rescheduled game against Black River Falls on Tuesday.