The Pierz Lakers and the St. Stephen Steves wrapped up the regular season on Sunday at Hellie Field in Pierz. The Lakers got solo Homers from Carter Petron and Kolten Happke and a trio of pitchers combined to register 15 strikeouts in the game and limit the Steves to just 3 hits. One of those hits was a 3-run bomb from Mat Meyer in the top of the 8th.
Pierz got on the board in the bottom of the 3rd when Mason Athman led off with a walk, Chase Becker singled and Carter Petron was hit by a pitch from Steves starter Landon Lunser to load the bases. The Lakers then got their runs on a sacrifice fly from Preston Rocheleau and a squeeze bunt from Kamden Happke to give Pierz a 2-0 lead after 3 innings.
In the top of the 4th, Lakers starter Carter Petron had a 1-2-3 inning to wrap up his day on the mound, as he allowed only 1 hit, a 1st inning single to Mat Meyer while striking out 7. Petron retired the final 10 men he faced and 12 of 13 overall.
In the bottom of the 4th, David Kroger led off with a single, his 2nd hit of the game, was sacrificed to 2nd on a bunt by Brady Petron and then was wild pitched to 3rd. With 2 outs, Mason Athman collected his first career Victory League hit with a ringing double to the left-center gap to bring in Kroger and make it 3-0 after 4 innings.
Preston Rocheleau took over for the Lakers on the mound in the 5th and got a pair of infield pop ups and a strikeout while walking 1.
In the bottom of the 5th, Carter Petron led off the inning with a solo Homer to dead center field to make it a 4-0 lead for the Lakers. 2 outs later, Kolten Happke Homered to left to give Pierz a 5-0 lead after 5 innings.
St. Stephen put together their first legitimate scoring chance in the top of the 6th when Brody Sabin walked with 1 out and a Charlie Kent single sent Sabin to 3rd. But Preston Rocheleau got Mat Meyer to bounce into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the 6th, Danny Litke reached base on a 1-out error, then Chase Becker singled to right, advancing Litke to 3rd. After Becker stole 2nd, Carter Petron drilled a 2-run single to center, scoring both Litke and Becker to put Pierz ahead 7-0 after 6 innings.
In the top of the 8th, with Chase Becker now on the hill for the Lakers, Andrew Wollak reached on an error and Brady Sabin walked. Mat Meyer then drilled a 2-out, 3-run homer to left and it was now a 7-3 game.
In the top of the 9th, Chase Becker struck out the first 2 hitters of the inning, but then walked the next 2. Becker ended the game with his 3rd strikeout of the inning and 6th over his 2 innings of work to finish off the Lakers 7-3 win. The Pierz Lakers finish the season as the #5 seed and the St. Stephen Steves will be the #8 seed in the upcoming District 4B Tournament next weekend.
St. Stephen 3 3 1 – 3
Pierz Lakers 7 8 1 – 7
WP: Preston Rocheleau 3.0 IP 0 runs 1 hit 2k 3bb
Carter Petron 4.0 IP 0 runs 1 hit 7k 0bb
Chase Becker 2.0 IP 3 runs 1 hit 6k 3bb
LP: Landon Lunser 5.0 IP 5 runs 6 hits 1k 1bb 1hp
Carter Ramsey 3.0 IP 2 runs 2 hits 7k 0bb 1hp
Lakers:
Carter Petron 2-3 Hr, hp, 3 rbi, run
Preston Rocheleau 0-3 sac fly, rbi
Kamden Happke 0-3 sac, rbi
Kolten Happke 1-4 Hr, rbi, run
David Kroger 2-4 run
Brady Petron 0-2 sac
– Nate Janson 0-1
Danny Litke 0-3, hp, run
Mason Athman 1-3 2B, bb, rbi, run
Chase Becker 2-3 sb, 2 runs
Steves:
Brody Sabin 0-2 2bb, run
Charlie Kent 1-4
Mat Meyer 2-4 Hr, 3 rbi, run
Jack Greenlun 0-4
Joe Tuholsky 0-3 bb
– Tyler Janssen 0-0
Justin Hunt 0-3 bb
– Carter Ramsey 0-0
Reid Lunser 0-3 bb
Landon Lunser 0-2
– Brody Wolhart 0-1 bb
Andrew Wollak 0-4 run