MADISON — A nightmarish 9-run sixth inning was all that was needed to keep the Cheesemakers from collecting the second gold trophy in program history. Monroe lost to Seymour 9-1 in the WIAA Division 2 state championship June 8 at Goodman Softball Complex in Madison.

“One inning doesn’t define our whole season — we had a great season,” Monroe head coach Joe O’Leksy said.

The Cheesemakers (23-5) found a way to win throughout the season, with its only other losses coming in doubleheader sweeps to D1 powerhouse Oak Creek and Watertown on the final day of the regular season when star senior Olivia Bobak was unavailable to hit or pitch.

But against Seymour (26-1), Monroe’s luck ran out in a big way.

The game went five scoreless innings, with Bobak and Seymour senior Paige Weyer brilliantly getting out of jams and tight spots.

In the second inning the Thunder put two runners on base with no one out, but Bobak struck out Seymour’s 7-8-9 hitters to end the threat. Monroe’s offense loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third with the top of the order coming up, but Weyer escaped from that mess with a K and a pair of groundouts.

“We went after some bad pitches and got a little anxious,” O’Leksy said. “I don’t know if it was deer-in-the-headlights, but we had our best hitters up with bases loaded.”

Senior Hailey Betthauser hit a fielder’s choice grounder that got Snider thrown out at home for the first out. She said the team didn’t hang their heads after coming up scoreless despite the prime opportunity.

“You always have other chances, even though we didn’t get a run we were still getting on base and we could continue to get on base,” Betthauser said.

In the fourth, the Thunder started showing signs of figuring out Bobak, as Weyer and Dinah King smoked hard line drives to the outfield, but Sarah Prien and Hailey Betthauser made the proper adjustments in left and center fields to take away extra base hits.

Seymour’s top hitter Chloe Evans opened the sixth with a wind-aided bloop single over the head of Monroe second baseman Alyse Maurer. A series of poor decisions and four errors allowed nine runs to cross the plate. Just two of those runs were earned. Twice during the inning O’Leksy came out to talk to his infield. 

“It was a Murphy’s Law thing — what could go wrong in that inning did,” O’Leksy said.

Evans, who hit .635 during the regular season with 12 homers, capped Seymour’s scoring with a thunderous no-doubt home run into the wind in right center. The nine runs set the Division 2 record for most runs in an inning in the state tournament.

“I just feel like we just weren’t making good decisions on where we were throwing it, and I wasn’t making as good of pitches as I should have been,” Bobak said. “I feel like those kinds of innings happen for every team at least one time a year, and unfortunately for us it happened when we didn’t want it to.”

The Cheesemakers were able to plate a run in the bottom of the seventh. Lizzie Snider snagged her second hit of the game to lead off the seventh. In her last prep plate appearance, Betthauser singled to left field and Sydney Updike hit a flair into shallow right to plate the Cheesemakers’ only run with two outs. Bobak, Monroe’s leading hitter this season with a .481 average, grounded out to second on the first pitch she saw to end the game.

“I was just trying to put something in play trying to get it through (the infield). It just hit off the end of my bat,” said Bobak, who struck out eight on the mound. As the final out was recorded, Bobak buried her face into her hands and hugged assistant coach Noel Herbst with tears in her eyes. “I knew running down the baseline that that was it for my high school career.”

Bobak, who will play at Madison College next year, finishes her career with over 600 strikeouts on the mound. In her final game on the mound for the Cheesemakers, she allowed just two earned runs on seven hits and four walks with eight strikeouts.

“I’m going to try to remember all the good things we did as a team, all the fun times and all the good teammates and how well we all got along together,” Bobak said.

Betthauser, who doesn’t plan to continue her softball career in college, said she was fortunate to be able to play in a state championship game.

“It’s kind of disappointing that we didn’t show our true talent and made those errors, but it’s still an accomplishment that we got second and made it to state,” Betthauser said. “There’s a lot (of emotions) going on.”

Maurer, Updike and Snider, all sophomores, had two hits in the game for Monroe, which as a team outhit Seymour 9-7. 

“For the most part of the seven innings we played pretty well except for not coming through with that big hit,” O’Leksy said. “It’s a tough loss. Liv and Hailey have been three-year starters on varsity. Liv’s going to go play in college and we’ll go watch her play. But I know they really wanted this bad and it just didn’t work out for us.

“We have a lot of girls in our program, we have a lot of girls in Park and Rec, we have a lot of girls interested in Monroe softball. We started five sophomores and a freshman this year. We have people coming back, but we are really going to miss Olivia and Hailey — they were a core to our success this year. Somebody will have to step up next year, but the future looks bright.”

WIAA Division 2 State Semifinal

Monroe 10, New Berlin West 2

MADISON — The Cheesemakers knocked off New Berlin West 10-2 Friday, June 7, in a WIAA Division 2 semifinal at Goodman Diamond.

Bobak struck out 11 batters and scattered five hits, four walks and hit a batter. Just one of the two runs against her were earned — a solo inside-the-park home run to Elena Barnes in the third inning.

“We said to Bobak, we’re going right after their hitters. We wanted to get ahead of them and then have them chase our rise balls and changeups — we got Barnes on a screwball,” O’Leksy said. “We told the girls not to look at the stats, they are just hitters.”

The Cheesemakers opened the game with a 4-run first inning. Maurer and Betthauser opened the bottom of the first with back-to-back walks, and then Bobak hit a sharp 1-out single past first to plate two runs. Grace Tostrud and Katie Hays made it three-straight singles to plate another run. Sloane Ambrose then grounded to third and reached on an error. Snider grounded out to second, driving in the fourth run of the frame in the process. The ninth batter of the inning, Prien, grounded out to end the first.

“We wanted to come out of the gate really strong. They pitched to contact and we said we want to hit it and hit it hard,” O’Leksy said. “And we hit the ball really hard.”

Monroe’s lead rose to 6-0 after two innings, with Updike driving in a pair on a double to right center. A 3-run fourth made it 9-2 thanks to an RBI triple from Bobak and RBI singles from Hayes and Ambrose. New Berlin West made the first of two pitching changes in the fourth. Monroe added another run in the fifth on a Betthauser RBI groundout.

The jubilation from the dugout after the final out could be felt around the facility. 

“It feels awesome and amazing. I can’t even put it into words. This was one of our main goals, and I’m glad that we came this far,” Maurer said after the win.

“Going into that inning we knew that we could do it — just three more outs. We got it done, so we were really happy,” Updike said.

Updike had three hits to lead Monroe, while Katie Hayes, Sloane Ambrose and Bobak each had two hits. Bobak and Maurer each tripled for the Cheesemakers, while Updike added a double. 

“The girl was throwing it outside a lot, and when a girl is throwing it outside you want to take it to right. I was just doing a really good job of that,” Bobak said.

New Berlin West junior catcher Kat Burkhardt is one of the state’s premier hitters and entered the game with 16 home runs, 52 RBIs and a .694 batting average. She was 2 for 4 against Bobak with a strikeout and a double.

“I was just going about it as if she’s just another hitter,” Bobak said. “My goal was to throw strikes to her. If she gets a good hit, then kudos to her. To strike her out is a bit of a bonus.”

The biggest threat against Bobak was in the sixth inning when the Vikings had bases loaded and one out after three walks. Bobak then induced a pop out in foul territory and struck out Maddie Timmers to end the threat.

“I was just thinking to myself to slow down and go back to the basics. I feel like I am better when I am under pressure,” Bobak said.

O’Leksy was the Monroe JV coach for over 20 years before taking over in 2017 after Hall of Famer Dale Buvid’s retirement. O’Leksy was an assistant coach for the other seven trips Monroe made to state, but said there is simply no way to compare one team against another.

“You just can’t compare because they are so different. The opponents are different, the time periods are different, the bats are different — everything is different,” O’Leksy said. “I’m just proud of this group that they got an opportunity. There were five (Monroe) teams that previously had an opportunity (in a state championship) — four took silver and one took gold. We’re just happy to have the opportunity to shoot for gold.”