Tomahawk’s Post 93 American Legion team entered last weekend’s Marathon Regional with a stellar 21-1 record, but tough opponents stood between the Cubs and a state berth.
Marathon topped Tomahawk twice to knock them down to a 2-2 record in the event, with Saturday’s 8-5 defeat eliminating Post 93 from the tourney.
“Overall this was a great season that the young men should look back on with pride,” Post 93 assistant coach Wes Roessler said. “I wish the seniors well in their future endeavors and they will be missed. I have coached some of these guys since T-ball and it was a great thrill to watch them develop as players.”
A six-run fourth pushed Marathon to 8-0, before Post 93 rallied with five in the fifth started by Jordan Roessler’s home run.
“This is another game where our defense let us down,” Roessler said. “Kaleb (Kaminski) pitched very well but the mistakes cost us dearly.
“Aaron Schoone hit the ball hard and reached base at every plate appearance. Jordan started the inning off with a home run and it seemed to spark the team. We were able to string some hits together and got five runs across the plate. After that, we couldn’t manage to get anything going consistently.”
Marathon– 002 600 0–8.
Tomahawk– 000 050 0–5.
TP: Kaleb Kaminski 5 I, 8 H, 2 W, 1 K, 8 R, 0 ER; Fletcher Schoone 2 I, 2 H, 0 W, 0 K, 0 R. TH: 10 H; A. Schoone 3-3; Aaron Leonhard 2-3; F. Schoone 2-4; Thompson 1-4, 2 RBI; Roessler 1-5, HR.
Post 93 opened the tourney on Wednesday with a 5-0 triumph over Nekoosa.
“It was a good start,” Roessler said. “Nekoosa always plays a tough game against us.
“Our batters stayed patient early in the game when we couldn’t get anything started. We were finally able to score some runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
“Jon (Nyberg) and Fletcher (Schoone) did a great job of keeping the Nekoosa hitters off the bases.
Nekoosa– 000 000 0–0.
Tomahawk– 000 032 x–5.
TP: Nyberg 4-1/3 I, 3 H, 2 W, 5 K, 0 R; Schoone 2-2/3 I, 0 H, 2 W, 2 K, 0 R. TH: 9 H; Lorne Ahrens 2-4, 2 RBI; Bolder 2-4; Roessler 2-4.
After Tomahawk’s initial loss to Marathon, it rebounded with Friday’s 6-3 victory over Nekoosa.
“We were able to take advantage of some mistakes by the Nekoosa defense,” Roessler said. “Loren came up with a big hit in the first with a triple and scored with an error on the play. It electrified our team. He has done that several times this year. He is a real spark plug for us.
“Jared (Jarvensivu) did a really nice job on the mound. He was able to pitch out of some jams and didn’t let the Nekoosa batters rattle him.”
Nekoosa– 100 020 0–3.
Tomahawk– 240 000 x–6.
TP: Jarvensivu 7 I, 7 H, 4 W, 2 K, 3 R, 1 ER. TH: 9 H; Ahrens 2-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Bolder 2-3, 2 R; Kaminski 2-3; Roessler 1-3, 2 RBI.
Marathon handed Post 93 just its second loss of the season in Thursday’s 7-3 contest.
“It was a tough game for us,” Roessler said. “We are usually a solid team defensively and we made some costly errors. We hit the ball hard several times but right at the Marathon defenders. It was really frustrating. We just couldn’t produce a big inning to pull it off.”
Marathon– 320 010 1–7.
Tomahawk– 000 100 2–3.
TP: Bolder 2 I, 3 H, 3 W, 2 K, 5 R, 3 ER; Schiltz 4 I, 5 H, 4 W, 1 K, 2 R, 2 ER; Roessler 1 I, 2 H, 1 K, 1 R, 1 ER. TH: 9 H; Leonhard 2-3, 2B; Schilts 1-1, 2B; Roessler 1-4, 2B.