Baseball: Zahn pitches 4-hitter; Wilson, Haagensen lead offense as Fort beats Waunakee 6-0

Jordan Zahn pitched a four-hit shutout as Fort Atkinson’s baseball team upended Waunakee 6-0 in Badger Large play at Jones Park on Tuesday.

“Tonight was an outstanding team win, featuring overall good defense, production up and down the lineup and obviously a tremendous pitching performance from Jordan,” Fort baseball coach Andy Schwantes said.

Trent Wilson and Cam Haagensen powered the Fort offense, both contributing three hits. Wilson scored twice while Haagensen drove in three runs.

The Blackhawks (6-16, 4-9 in conference) backed Zahn with three early runs. Braden Hausen reached on an outfield error to lead off the first, took second on Braeden Hoth’s sacrifice bunt, reached third on a Wilson single before scoring on a Haagensen base knock to center.

Fort pushed its lead to 3-0 in the third. Hoth reached on pitcher Luke Hurlebaus’ error, then scored with one away when Haagensen bunted for a hit. Wilson, who also bunted for a hit, came around on Alexis Martinez’s fielder’s choice.

Wilson opened the fifth with his third base knock of the game, scoring on Haagensen’s third hit. Haagensen made it 5-0 when he scored via error at shortstop for Waunakee (8-13, 6-7).

Jackson Leibman doubled with one away in the seventh and scored when Hoth bunted for a hit.

Zahn struck out just one and walked none. He stranded Colin Murphy at third in the second inning, then picked off Tate Schmidt in the fourth. Zahn navigated around Oliver Lee’s lead off single in the seventh, using a pair of ground balls that resulted in fielder’s choices before retiring Zach King with two men aboard to end it.

“A complete-game shutout in 70 pitches like Jordan threw is something we’ll take any day,” Schwantes said. “He does a great job of competing in the zone with movement and change of speeds to get early contact that is typically weak or at our defense and when they show up, it’s a good recipe.

“We were able to execute multiple bunts to put pressure on them and then had some clutch hits mixed in. Overall it was a great win, our guys really had one another’s backs tonight.”

Fort travels to face Waunakee on Thursday at 5 p.m.

FORT ATKINSON 6, WAUNAKEE 0Waunakee 000 000 0 — 0 4 3

Fort 102 021 x — 6 10 2

Leading hitters — FA: Wilson 3x4, Haagensen 3x3, Leibman (2B).

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — W: Hurlebaus L; 5-7-5-2-1-4, Dettor 0.1-3-1-1-0-0, Schmidt 0.2-0-0-0-0-0; FA: Zahn W; 7-4-0-0-0-1.