APPLETON — The Badgers of Lake Geneva are making the most of the program’s first trip to the WIAA Division 1 state baseball tournament.
Badger defeated Sussex-Hamilton 2-1 in a state semifinal game Wednesday at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Grand Chute just outside of Appleton.
Badger will face either Hartford or Muskego at 6 p.m. Thursday in the championship game.
Badger went down 1-0 in the first, but back-to-back hits in the fourth inning gave them a 2-1 lead that held up for the remainder of the game.
The inning began with two walks to set up an RBI single by Ryan McCarthy to score Matthew O’Gr;ady. Then an RBI single by Bradley McCarthy scored Oliver Schaid to take the lead and the Badgers never looked back.
In Monday’s quarterfinal, the Badgers scored early, then they scored often to upset #1 Hudson 14-3 to advance to the semifinal.
Holding a 5-3 lead heading into the fifth, Badger scored nine runs in the inning, and Hudson never recovered.
STATE TOURNAMENT ON THE AIR: The championship finals of all four divisions will be aired live on the WIAA State Television Stations WKOW 27.2, WAOW 9.2, WQOW 18.2 and WXOW 19.2, WVTV 24.1 in Milwaukee and WCWF 14.1 in Green Bay/Appleton. The finals will also be streamed live on the Network stations’ websites.
DIVISION 1
Quarterfinals – Monday, June 16 – 9 a.m.
Game 1 – #4 Hamilton (22-8) 6, #5 Oak Creek (23-6) 1 – Stats
Game 2 – #8 Badger (22-7) 14, #1 Hudson (19-7) 3 – Stats
Quarterfinals – Monday, June 16 – 2:30 p.m.
Game 3 – #6 Hartford (22-7) 4, #3 Hortonville (22-8) 1 – Stats
Game 4 – #2 Sun Prairie East vs. #7 Muskego
Semifinals – Wednesday, June 18 – 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 – Hamilton (22-8) vs. Badger (22-7)
Game 6 – Hartford (22-7) vs. Muskego (21-9)
Championship – Thursday, June 19 – 6 p.m.
Game 7 – Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6