MONROE - Bang! Bang! And the game-winning rally was dead.
Monona Grove shortstop Paul Zweifel's throw across the diamond beat Jake Teasdale by half a step for the last out of Thursday's Badger South baseball game with runners at every station, ending Monroe's comeback bid at home in a heartbreaking 5-4 loss.
The bases ended covered with Cheesemakers because senior shortstop Shawn Hart's bid to make major amends was blocked by a stop sign at third base with just one out.
Hart started the seventh-inning, one-out rally by legging out a two-strike infield single that glanced off reliever Taylor Meyers' right leg.
"I hadn't had the best of nights, so I knew I was due for one," Hart said of his game that included two errors and an 0-for-2 mark entering his last at-bat. "I saw the ball hit off his leg, so I knew I'd have a better chance of beating it, so I motored down even harder."
Lefty leadoff man Nate Barta then chopped a slow-roller that first baseman and Silver Eagles starter Jordan Lemanski fired to second. But Hart beat the throw with some gritty selflessness as he aimed his textbook slide at Zweifel.
"I was trying to break it up by sliding into him and it may have helped things out," Hart said.
After fighting off four straight 1-2 pitches, senior Kyle Klopfenstein punched a seeing-eye hit between second and first base that bounced twice before reaching the outfield grass.
"I hope people understand just how important he is to our team," Monroe coach Steve Christensen said of the catcher, who played just three days after breaking his nose at Warner Park on Monday night. "If there's anybody up there that you expect to put it in play, it's 'Klop.'"
With just one down and Weckerly waiting on deck with two hits already, Christensen threw up the red light on Hart as he rounded third base on Klopfenstein's hit.
"We don't have a deep right field and he was about 140 or 150 feet away when he got to it," Christensen said. "If I could go back and do it again, I'd send him and see what happens. It was a bad decision."
Hart never reached home, as Taylor Weckerly fanned on four pitches before Teasdale came up half a stride short of being the hero.
Afterward, Monroe junior and starter Mitch Tordoff likened Hart's tough decision to one that a former Brewer took a different direction with recently.
"After, Tordoff said to me, 'Geoff Jenkins', because they gave him the stop sign and he just ran right through it," Hart said. "I rounded the bag and I thought about it when I saw the right fielder get to it, but I have faith in all my other teammates."
The teams exchanged 3-run halves in the third inning as the Silver Eagles picked up three runs on as many hits and an error. Hitless to that point, Monroe was woken up by its No. 7 hitter as lefty Mike Demianiuk hit a rainbow home run to dead right field that just kept stretching.
"That was pretty unexpected. I don't think he's hit one even close to that in practice," Hart said. "He just got a new bat this week, so maybe that was it."
"I've just been working on my swing lately and I hit the batting cage the other night after I got my new bat," Demianiuk explained. "I found if I put my hands back a little farther, I could get to pitches faster."
After two quick outs, Barta rapped a seeing-eye single through the right side and took second on a wild pitch before Klopfenstein flared an RBI-hit and Weckerly cracked a humpback liner into the right center alley that plated "Klop" from first.
Weckerly also speared an incredible backhanded pick at the hot corner and threw out Meyers in the first inning. But the slugging catcher-turned-reliever got his in the fifth when he pounded a 2-run bomb well out of the park to left field in the fifth off Tordoff.
Three batters later, Mike Rear took the ball and worked out of a two-on, one-out jam. In the seventh, he wriggled off an even more dangerous hook. Two middle-infield errors allowed the Eagles to load the bases with one out before Rear fanned Billy DeVault on three pitches and got Logan Huff to roll over one to the first baseman Teasdale. The senior flipped to Rear, who covered to beat the head-first sliding Huff by an immeasurable margin.
"It was somebody else's mess that Mike had to clean up and he did a great job," Christensen said.
The Cheesemakers get a break from conference play Saturday when interstate rival Lena-Winslow visits.
Monona Grove shortstop Paul Zweifel's throw across the diamond beat Jake Teasdale by half a step for the last out of Thursday's Badger South baseball game with runners at every station, ending Monroe's comeback bid at home in a heartbreaking 5-4 loss.
The bases ended covered with Cheesemakers because senior shortstop Shawn Hart's bid to make major amends was blocked by a stop sign at third base with just one out.
Hart started the seventh-inning, one-out rally by legging out a two-strike infield single that glanced off reliever Taylor Meyers' right leg.
"I hadn't had the best of nights, so I knew I was due for one," Hart said of his game that included two errors and an 0-for-2 mark entering his last at-bat. "I saw the ball hit off his leg, so I knew I'd have a better chance of beating it, so I motored down even harder."
Lefty leadoff man Nate Barta then chopped a slow-roller that first baseman and Silver Eagles starter Jordan Lemanski fired to second. But Hart beat the throw with some gritty selflessness as he aimed his textbook slide at Zweifel.
"I was trying to break it up by sliding into him and it may have helped things out," Hart said.
After fighting off four straight 1-2 pitches, senior Kyle Klopfenstein punched a seeing-eye hit between second and first base that bounced twice before reaching the outfield grass.
"I hope people understand just how important he is to our team," Monroe coach Steve Christensen said of the catcher, who played just three days after breaking his nose at Warner Park on Monday night. "If there's anybody up there that you expect to put it in play, it's 'Klop.'"
With just one down and Weckerly waiting on deck with two hits already, Christensen threw up the red light on Hart as he rounded third base on Klopfenstein's hit.
"We don't have a deep right field and he was about 140 or 150 feet away when he got to it," Christensen said. "If I could go back and do it again, I'd send him and see what happens. It was a bad decision."
Hart never reached home, as Taylor Weckerly fanned on four pitches before Teasdale came up half a stride short of being the hero.
Afterward, Monroe junior and starter Mitch Tordoff likened Hart's tough decision to one that a former Brewer took a different direction with recently.
"After, Tordoff said to me, 'Geoff Jenkins', because they gave him the stop sign and he just ran right through it," Hart said. "I rounded the bag and I thought about it when I saw the right fielder get to it, but I have faith in all my other teammates."
The teams exchanged 3-run halves in the third inning as the Silver Eagles picked up three runs on as many hits and an error. Hitless to that point, Monroe was woken up by its No. 7 hitter as lefty Mike Demianiuk hit a rainbow home run to dead right field that just kept stretching.
"That was pretty unexpected. I don't think he's hit one even close to that in practice," Hart said. "He just got a new bat this week, so maybe that was it."
"I've just been working on my swing lately and I hit the batting cage the other night after I got my new bat," Demianiuk explained. "I found if I put my hands back a little farther, I could get to pitches faster."
After two quick outs, Barta rapped a seeing-eye single through the right side and took second on a wild pitch before Klopfenstein flared an RBI-hit and Weckerly cracked a humpback liner into the right center alley that plated "Klop" from first.
Weckerly also speared an incredible backhanded pick at the hot corner and threw out Meyers in the first inning. But the slugging catcher-turned-reliever got his in the fifth when he pounded a 2-run bomb well out of the park to left field in the fifth off Tordoff.
Three batters later, Mike Rear took the ball and worked out of a two-on, one-out jam. In the seventh, he wriggled off an even more dangerous hook. Two middle-infield errors allowed the Eagles to load the bases with one out before Rear fanned Billy DeVault on three pitches and got Logan Huff to roll over one to the first baseman Teasdale. The senior flipped to Rear, who covered to beat the head-first sliding Huff by an immeasurable margin.
"It was somebody else's mess that Mike had to clean up and he did a great job," Christensen said.
The Cheesemakers get a break from conference play Saturday when interstate rival Lena-Winslow visits.
