Sports Wrapups: July 13

Franklin baseball

After opening last week with three losses over the course of four days, Franklin rallied for four straight wins and had a full head of steam for this week's Greater Metro Conference Tournament.

The Sabers lost consecutive games to conference champion Muskego, 8-5 and 6-1, on July 5 and 6, and then were blown out, 12-0, by visiting Oak Creek on July 8.

"There was only one team competing on the field, and it wasn't us," Franklin coach Jim Hughes said.

After that shellacking, the Sabers regrouped to win two games the next day.

Behind their ace Brandon Wiedenfeld, who was pitching on two days rest, Franklin shut out Brookfield Central, 4-0, in a makeup game. Wiedenfeld logged nine strikeouts and did not walk a batter in a complete-game effort.

A few hours later, the Sabers got another strong pitching performance, this time from Ryan Geil, who silenced hot-hitting Oak Creek in a 7-2 road win.

The Knights had scored at least eight runs in its six previous games, but the only damage they did against Geil was a two-run home run by Andy Page in the third inning.

Franklin's Evan Walton and Jay Dirienzo contributed three hits and two RBIs each as the Sabers posted 13 hits.

"After getting knocked around by Oak Creek, these kids showed me something about their character," Hughes said. "We hit the ball well against a pretty good pitcher."

The improved hitting and the fine pitching performances continued Saturday, when the Sabers dominated the host Whitnall Falcons in a doubleheader by a combined score of 29-4.

Adam Kaniewski (4-for-4, two RBIs) and Matt Sklander (3-for-4) led the Sabers at the plate in the first game, and on the mound, sophomore Matt Busalacchi, who just came up from the junior varsity squad, struck out four and held Whitnall to three hits in a 15-0 drubbing.

An eight-run second inning paved the way to a 14-4 victory in the second game. Marcus Schlemm had three hits, and Joel Kornhoff (six RBIs) hit his second home run of the year.

Greendale baseball

The Panthers' once-promising season continued to spiral downward with four league losses during a six-game, six-day stretch beginning July 6.

The struggles knocked Greendale to 13-18 overall as of today and 11-10 in the Woodland Conference Black Division. In late June, the Panthers were 7-3 in league play and found themselves in title contention.

"It's a typical high school team; when we're good, we're pretty good, but when we're bad, we're horrid," Greendale coach Ted Brzenk said. "We don't have a pitcher that when we need a strikeout, we can get a strikeout. Our pitching and our defense sometimes let us down. And we can't get a two-out hit or a have consistent guy get runners in."

The Panthers were swept by conference champion New Berlin Eisenhower, 11-4 and 2-1, in a road doubleheader Monday. The losses snapped Greendale's modest two-game winning streak.

In the blowout, Greendale's Brandon Kozinski was 4-for-4 with a triple. In the one-run game, Greendale's Nick Lichtenwalner was the tough-luck losing pitcher after giving up a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

It was the third straight time the Panthers were swept in a league doubleheader. The second time came at home to Greenfield, 5-2 and 11-2, on July 6.

Jo Jo Sardina struck out nine batters over nine innings, but Greenfield scored three times in the top of the ninth to snap a 2-2 tie.

Greendale's Dan Wisniewski doubled, tripled and drove in a run.

In the nightcap, Greendale pitchers allowed 20 hits, including four to Alec Molter and three each to Jason Katrichis and Nick Jablonski.

The Panthers did pick up wins over St. Francis and St. Thomas More on July 8 and 9.

In an 8-2 win at St. Francis, Mike Prescott homered and drove in three runs to make Eric Hoefs (four innings, three strikeouts) a winner on the mound.

Greendale scored at least one run in each of the first four innings en route to a 7-5 home win over St. Thomas More the next day.

Andrew Brees homered and drove in three and Kozinski and Prescott had two hits each. Sardina earned the victory and Nate Van Ells picked up a three-inning save.

After the Panthers complete the regular season this week with nonconference games at Homestead on Thursday, a doubleheader against Waukesha West at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Friday and at Arrowhead on Saturday, seventh-seeded Greendale takes on second-seeded Cudahy in a WIAA regional final at 5 p.m. July 20 at Sheridan Park.

Oak Creek baseball

No matter what Oak Creek does this weekend against Cudahy, it is still the No. 1 seed in its sectional.

But coach Scott Holler wants to make sure his team is playing its best baseball down the stretch.

One of the main areas he was looking to finalize before heading into the postseason was his pitching lineup. Though the Knights are 3-2 in the last five games, that part has let his team down recently.

Both losses came against Franklin, including a 6-5 home loss in the first round of the GMC Tournament on Monday.

With the Knights leading, 4-3, Brad Schulte allowed three Franklin runs in the seventh inning. The Knights scored one in the bottom of the inning, but that was all Franklin starter Evan Kruczynski, who had eight strikeouts, would allow.

Reliable hitters Josh Jesko and Tyler Zemla remained hot as each went 3-for-4 and combined for five RBIs.

The tournament loss came three days after Oak Creek concluded its league season with a 7-2 home loss to the Sabers on Friday.

Zemla, who has been the Knights' best pitcher all season, was tattooed for all seven runs and exited after five innings.

Andy Page homered for the Knights and freshman Hayden Krimmer was a bright spot for the offense, going 3-for-3.

On July 8, the Knights thrashed the Sabers behind the Knights' best pitching performance of the week. Schulte pitched a complete game and didn't allow a run in a 12-0 win.

He received plenty of offense as the Knights pounded out 16 hits. Jesko and Zemla homered and drove in three runs each and Page, Billy Wallace and Joey Gribble each had two hits.

Holler used four pitchers in Saturday's nonconference game against Whitefish Bay, but his offense led the way to a 14-10 slugfest win at home.

Jesko and Zemla were a combined 5-for-7 and paired for five RBIs. Jordan Hoffmeier went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

On July 5, the Knights' offense staked a six-run lead and hung on for a 9-7 win at West Allis Hale. Zemla also hit a home run in that game.

Oak Creek finished 12-8 in the GMC, good for third, and was 26-9 overall.

"If you would have told me this team would go 12-8 with the amount of pitching that was coming back in this conference, I would have taken it in a heartbeat," Holler said.

- David Cotey and Christopher Kuhagen