Whitehall begins legion ball with win over Arcadia
The first American Legion baseball game played by Whitehall Post 191 ended in a win over Arcadia Post 17 in La Crosse on Saturday.
Sponsored by Hutchins-Stendal Post 191, this is the first year that Whitehall has offered legion baseball. That means this summer will be the first time high school summer baseball has been offered by Whitehall since the district switched to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association spring season in 2012.
Whitehall and Arcadia played in a triangular with La Crosse Post 52. Whitehall led for most of the game and pulled away late. Post 191 then fell to Post 52, Arcadia also lost to Post 52.
The Whitehall team is in action twice this week, playing at Osseo on Thursday and in West Salem on Friday. Arcadia played a doubleheader at West Salem on Monday and will host Holmen on Thursday. This coming Monday, Arcadia plays at Onalaska.
Whitehall 10 Arcadia 6
Post 191 broke the game open in the top of the seventh then held off a rally by Post 17.
The Whitehall team struck first with two runs in the first inning as Devon McCune and Bryce Schorbahn had RBI singles. Arcadia responded with a run in the bottom half when Cam Boland scored on a sacrifice bunt by Prestin Scow.
Both teams scored again in the fourth inning as Isaac Skoyen came home on a passed ball for Whitehall and Walker Slaby scored on a hit by Boland for Arcadia, making the score 3-2.
An RBI single by Brock Sluga put Whitehall ahead by two before they put up six runs in the top of the seventh. McCune, Schorbahn and Mason Pientok all had RBI hits in the inning.
Arcadia came back with four runs — three of which were scored on walks with the bases loaded — but Post 191’s lead was not threatened.
Whitehall had 12 hits in the game as Pientok had three while Brayden Lisowski, McCune and Schorbahn all had two. McCune and Skoyen both had two RBIs.
Aidan Sonsalla was the winning pitcher, tossing the first five innings yielding four hits and five walks while striking out five. Skoyen finished the game, striking out four while allowing two hits and four walks.
Max Sobotta took the loss for Arcadia, pitching the first three innings with five hits allowed and two strikeouts. Caleb Pronschinske and Vince Braun both pitched two innings, the former allowed two hits and one walk while the latter surrendered five hits and two walks, both struck out one.
Boland had two of Arcadia’s six hits.
La Crosse 13 Whitehall 3
Post 52 came out swinging, winning the game in five innings.
Sonsalla had a two-run single for Post 191 while Skoyen doubled and batted in Whitehall’s only other run. McCune and Skoyen both had two hits, Sonsalla was one-for-one with two walks.
La Crosse 6 Arcadia 5
The team from La Crosse walked off winners after an error in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Arcadia scored two in the top of the seventh to tie the game at five and a scoreless bottom of the seventh for La Crosse sent the game into extra innings.
Post 17 went down in order in the top of the eighth, then Post 17 loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning. The Arcadia team was almost able to get out of the jam after a line drive was caught and a strikeout. The next batter hit into an error that brought the winning run home.
Arcadia scored the first three runs in the game as one came home on a hit batter with the bases loaded before Boland singled to make the score 2-0. An inning later, Ryan Gardow singled in Vince Braun, who led of the third with a double.
La Crosse got on the board with one in the fourth then took the lead with four runs off of five hits in the sixth.
Arcadia came back as Scow scored on a sacrifice fly before Tanner Schieffer singled Connor Weltzien in to tie the game.
Arcadia had eight hits in the game led by Schieffer and Max Sobotta, who both had two.
Schieffer took the loss despite not allowing a run. He came on with the bases loaded in the eighth and got two outs before the error. Weltzien was the starter, allowing eight hits and one walk while striking out eight in 5.2 innings. Scow relieved him, yielding two hits and three walks while striking out one in 1.1 innings. The winning run was charged to Scow.
