APPLETON — The Badger High School baseball team faces Muskego at 6 p.m. Thursday in the WIAA Division 1 state baseball championship game.
STATE TOURNAMENT ON THE AIR: The championship final will air live on the WIAA State Television Stations WKOW 27.2 out of Madison and WVTV 24.1 in Milwaukee.
The Badgers are making the most of their first appearance at state.
On Wednesday, they defeated Sussex-Hamilton 2-1 in a state semifinal game at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Grand Chute just outside of Appleton to advance to Thursday’s title 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.
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 – #7 Muskego (21-9) 7, #2 Sun Prairie East (21-8) 2 – Stats
Semifinals – Wednesday, June 18
Game 5 – Badger (23-7) 2, Hamilton (22-9) 1 – Stats
Game 6 – Muskego (22-9) 9, Hartford (22-8) 6 – Stats
Championship – Thursday, June 19 – 6 p.m.
Game 7 – Badger (23-7) vs. Muskego (22-9)