Matt Johnson’s 11th inning sacrifice fly turned out to be the decinding factor as the Freeport Black Sox finished off a big late-game rally to beat the Upsala Bluejays 9-8 in 11 innings on Saturday in Upsala. Freeport scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th to tie the game at 8-8 and force extra innings. The result of this game means that Freeport, Upsala, Aitkin and Pierz Bulldogs are all 5-5 heading into the final game of the regular season on Sunday.
Freeport got the scoring started in the top of the 1st when Ryan Liebrenz singled with 1 out, then scored on a 2-out rbi double from Matt Johnson to make it 1-0.
In the top of the 2nd, the Black Sox added 2 more runs, using a pair of 1-out errors by Upsala, a wild pitch and then a 2-run single from Ryan Liebrenz to give Freeport a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Jaxon Bartkowicz and Brandon Welinski opened the inning with singles, and after a sacrifice bunt from Joe Bartkowicz, Bruce Binek put Upsala on the board with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1 after 2 innings.
Upsala tied things up in the bottom of the 3rd when Jack Primus led off with a walk against Freeport starter Andrew Kerzman. Primus then stole both 2nd and 3rd, then scored on an rbi single to left by Justin Cichon to make it 3-2. Brady Yourczek then walked and a Matt Swanson sacrifice bunt moved men to 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Jaxon Bartkowicz then drove in Justin Cichon with a sacrifice fly to right and the game was even at 3-3 after 3 innings.
Upsala starter CJ Clear had a 1-2-3 top of the 4th with a pair of strikeouts and got Dominic Ritter to pop up to 3rd baseman Bryce Binek to end the inning.
The Bluejays took the lead in the bottom of the 4th when Joe Bartkowicz led off with a single. Pinch-runner Caden Beseman advanced to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt by Bryce Binek. That set up Colton Burggraff, who connected for his first career Victory League Homer, a 2-run shot to right to put Upsala ahead 5-3 after 4 innings.
In the bottom of the 6th, with Carter Neuenschwander now on the mound for Freeport, Brandon Welinski walked and Joe Bartkowicz singled. On a sacrifice bunt by Bryce Binek, a Freeport errorallowed Welinski to score to make it 6-3. Colton Burggraff then drove in Bartkowicz with an rbi groundout to make it 7-3. Justin Cichon doubled with 2 outs, driving in Bryce Binek to put Upsala ahead 8-3 after 6 innings.
In the top of the 8th, Freeport loaded the bases on a Bryan Benson single and walks to Ryan Liebrenz and Jared Laudenbach. With Jaxon Bartkowicz taking over the pitching duties for Upsala, Matt Johnson hit into a fielders chouce with Bryan Benson forced out at home for the first out. Bartkowicz then got Trevor Sawyer to line out to 1st baseman Jeremy Migg, with Matt Johnson getting doubled off 1st to end the inning.
Carter Williams, who had taken over on the mound in the bottom of the 7th for Freeport, worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the 8th to send the game to the 9th with Freeport still trailing 8-3.
In the top of the 9th, Upsala’s Jaxon Bartkowicz issued walks to the first 3 hitters of the inning as Nate Mettenburg, Carter Neuenschwander and Bentley Ritter all reached base. Upsala then replaced Batkowicz with Brady Yourczek on the mound while Freeport sent up Domini Ritter to face the new pitcher. A wild pitch from Yourczek scored Mettenburg to make it 8-4. Ritter then walked to reload the bases with no outs. Bryan Benson then hit into a 6-4-3 double play as Carter Neuenschwander scored to make it 8-5 but it put Freeport down to their final out. Ryan Liebrenz walked to put runners at the corners, then Jared Laudenbach launched a game-tying 3-run Homer to left and just like that, the Black Sox had pulled even at 8-8. Yourczek then got the final out of the inning when Matt Johnson popped up to shortstop Jack Primus to move the game to the bottom of the 9th.
Matt Swanson singled with 1 out but Carter Williams struck out Jaxon Bartkowicz and got Brandon Welinski to fly out to center fielder Ryan Liebrenz to send the game to the 10th all tied at 8-8.
Freeport got a 1-out double from Nate Mettenburg in the top of the 10th but that was it.
In the bottom of the 10th, Freeport brought in Carter Neuenschwander to pitch and he gave up a lead-off single to Joe Bartkowicz. A sacrifice bunt by Bryce Binek put the winning run at 2nd with 1 out. But Neuenschwander got out of with with a strikeout of Colton Burggraff and a Jack Primus groundout to shortstop Matt Johnson.
In the top of the 11th, another Freeport rally began with walks. Both Dominic Ritter and Bryan Benson walked to open the inning against Brady Yourczek. Ryan Liebrenz went down on strikes, followed by another walk to Jared Laudenbach to fill the bases. Matt Johnson then delivered a sacrifice fly to center as Dominic Ritter tagged up and scored the go-ahead run as Freeport grabbed a 9-8 lead.
In the bottom of the 11th, Carter Neuenschwander locked things down for the Black Sox, getting both Justin Cichon and Brady Yourczek to pop up to shortstop Matt Johnson and then got the games final out on a Matt Swanson fly out to right fielder Bryan Benson to give Freeport the 9-8 extra-inning win.
Freeport 9 10 3 – 9 11 innings
Upsala 8 11 3 – 8
WP: Carter Neuenschwander 3.0 IP 3 runs 3 hits 3k 1bb
Andrew Kerzman 5.0 IP 5 runs 6 hits 2k 2bb
Carter Williams 3.0 IP 0 runs 2 hits 2k 0bb
LP: Brady Yourczek 3.0 IP 3 runs 3 hits 2k 5bb
CJ Clear 7.0 IP 3 runs 4 hits 5k 3bb
Jaxon Bartkowicz 0.0 IP 3 runs 0 hits 0k 3bb
Black Sox:
Bryan Benson 1-5 bb
Ryan Liebrenz 2-4 2B, 2bb, 2 rbi, 2 runs
Jared Laudenbach 1-4 Hr, 2bb, 3 rbi, run
Matt Johnson 3-5 2B, sac fly, 2 rbi
Trevor Sawyer 0-1 bb
– Carter Williams 1-3
Nate Mettenburg 1-5 2B, bb, run
Carter Neuenschwander 0-4 bb, run
Iver Papke 1-3 run
– Bentley Ritter 0-1 bb, run
Dominic Ritter 0-3 2bb, 2 runs
Bluejays:
Jack Primus 0-5 bb, 2 sb, run
Justin Cichon 2-6 2B, 2 rbi, run
– Isaac Gapinski 0-0
Brady Yourczek 0-5 bb
Matt Swanson 1-5 sb
Jaxon Bartkowicz 2-5 rbi, run
Brandon Welinski 2-4 bb, run
Joe Bartkowicz 3-4 run
– Caden Beseman 0-0 run
Bryce Binek 0-3 rbi, run
Colton Burggraff 1-5 Hr, 3 rbi, run