Sophia Leitzen's walk-off homer sends Brodhead to 3-1 sectional semifinal win over Poynette

BRODHEAD, Wis. — When Brodhead shortstop Sophia Leitzen stepped up to the plate with the game knotted 1-1 with an out and a baserunner on first, no one at the ballfield had a better feeling than Steve Krupke.

“In my whole career, I’m not sure I would have wanted anyone else up,” the longtime head coach of the Cardinals said.

Apparently Krupke’s coaching staff had a pretty good hunch as well.

“One of our assistants literally was saying, ‘I’m calling it right now, this one’s going to be out of here,’” senior Ava Risum said. “And he’s like, ‘I got to hold the dugout back so that nobody accidentally touches her and the run doesn’t count.’”

Krupke’s assistants quickly became linemen holding back a bevy of screaming Cardinals ready to rush Leitzen, who had taken a 1-1 pitch from Poynette starter Kassidy McCaffery the other way and sent it over the right-field fence for the walk-off homer in top-seeded Brodhead’s 3-1 win over the No. 2 Pumas in Tuesday’s WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal.

“It was a very surreal feeling,” Leitzen said. “I hit it and kind of blacked out a little bit. I was just trying to get a base hit, that was my mentality. I was actually saying it out loud. ‘Base hit, base hit, base hit.’

“I hit it and I was like, ‘I think that’s gonna drop.’ And then once it went over I just sprinted around the bases. I was so excited. I’m so glad I could come through for this team. This team deserves it and it’s all for them.”

Keegan Steinke had started the seventh with a bloop single into left field before McCaffery battled back for a strikeout. Leitzen, who was 1-for-3 with an infield single from the leadoff spot up to that point, then set the Cardinals (18-4) to their second-straight sectional title game with her blast.

“Usually through the season I’ve been pretty good at knowing what pitch to hit,” the senior said. “This game, I was not where I wanted to be. So, I was like, ‘You know what? If I see a pitch I like, I’m just gonna take a hack.’ And that’s what I did.

“She was throwing me outside, so I was trying to take it the other way, and it didn’t work as well the first couple at bat. But that last one, I kept my head on it and it went where I wanted.”

It ended a strong pitches’ duel between McCaffery and Risum as the two kept it a one-score game until the very last at-bat.

“(McCaffery) had a really good spin on her curveball that she had been throwing,” Leitzen said. “When she would get up on us, she would throw that curveball, and it was very tough to track.”

The Cardinals knocked McCaffery for nine hits and three earned runs with no walks and six strikeouts.

Risum was even stronger from the circle, allowing just four hits and an earned run with 10 strikeouts.

“The last two games, my spins have really been helping me, especially my rise and my change,” Risum said. “And tonight they weren’t as strong and I could tell that my rise was a little bit flat. But those days happen, so I just worked on throwing it further off the plate, trying to get them to chase it. I knew I could rely on my teammates and they had a lot of good fielded balls.”

The junior only allowed baserunners in the seventh, when she worked around a leadoff single, and in the fourth, when Poynette (17-8) struck for their lone run.

Addison Mackey ended up at third to start after her hard-hit ball into right fell in after two outfielders collided. A strikeout later, McCaffery sent a single into center field to tie it at one.

After another strikeout, Morgan Gunderson singled to right to put runners on the corner but a pop out ended the danger.

Brodhead was clean in practically every other frame.

“The entire time, we were just like, ‘We don’t want this to be our last game,’” Risum said. “We didn’t want that to happen, so we really just kept fighting. We knew our bats would come around eventually because they were kind of there the whole game, they just weren’t stringing together.”

That is until Leitzen’s homer.

“I’ve never had a group, in however many years I’ve been doing this, do everything right in practices and games, stick together as a team, and have such stay loose attitudes,” Krupke said. “They deserve this. If they would have lost tonight, it would have broken my heart.”

Leah Rear and Jaelyn Hilliard both had two hits for the Cardinals. The duo teamed up for Brodhead’s first run in the first when Hilliard beat out a hard-hit infield single and Rear walloped an RBI single up the middle.

“Jaelyn just plays the game hard every pitch,” Krupke said. “She's a spark plug, and she's gonna give you everything she's got 100% all the time.”

“Leah is not only very good at softball, but she has a great attitude and constantly wanting to learn,” Leitzen said. “Her bringing energy to this team is huge, too. She knows exactly what to do and how to hit.”

Brodhead will now face No. 5 Adams-Friendship, which upset No. 2 River Valley 5-2, for a chance to make a second-straight state tournament and continue its title defense.

“Our biggest thing has been go 1-0 every game,” Letizen said. “We take every game like it’s the state championship, and we’re going to play it like it is. We want to run the table this year and do what we can.”

• BOXSCORE:

BRODHEAD 3, POYNETTE 1

Poy 001 100 0 — 1 4 0

Brod 100 000 2 — 3 9 0

POYNETTE (ab-r-h-rbi) — Mackey, 2b, 3-1-1-0, Gavinski, c, 3-0-0-0, McCaffery, p, 3-0-1-1, Gunderson, ss, 3-0-1-0, Rivette, 1b, 3-0-0-0, Johnson, rf, 3-0-0-0, Steinhorst, 3b, 2-0-0-0, McLane, lf, 1-0-0-0, Severson, ph, 1-0-0-0. Totals: 25-1-4-1.

BRODHEAD (ab-r-h-rbi) — Leitzen, ss, 4-1-2-2, Hilliard, cf, 3-1-2-0, Risum, p, 3-0-1-0, Rear, 3b, 3-0-2-1, Dahl, 2b, 2-0-0-0, Schwartz, c, 3-0-0-0, Ceslok, 1b, 3-0-1-0, Steinke, lf, 3-1-1-0, Kloepping, rf, 1-0-0-0, Krumwiede, ph, 2-0-0-0. Totals: 27-3-8-3.

LOB: Poy 3, Brod 5. SB: Gavinski, Hilliard. 2B: Rear. 3B: Mackey. HR: Leitzen.

Pitching: Poy, McCaffery (L) 6.1-9-3-3-0-6. Brod, Risum (W) 6.2-4-1-1-0-10.