Legion baseball: Fort Atkinson wins regional by default to reach third straight state tournament

For the third straight season, Fort Atkinson’s Legion Post 166 19U baseball team is headed to the Class AA State Tournament.

The Hawks won their home regional by default this weekend when Cedarburg and Grafton both bowed out due to a shortage of players.

Fort hosted the state tournament and thus qualified automatically in 2021, finishing 2-2, before going undefeated to win their regional last season, only to lose a pair of tightly-contested games at the state tournament in Ashwaubenon.

Fort now heads to West Salem for this year’s state tournament and takes on Onalaska at 1:30 p.m. on Friday. A win versus Onalaska puts Fort in a 6:30 p.m. game on Saturday, while a loss would send them to a 1:30 p.m. game on Saturday.

“We certainly aren’t going to complain about a third consecutive trip to the state tournament, no matter how we earn that spot,” Fort Legion Post 166 manager Andy Schwantes said. “We felt really good about our team and matchups going into the regional regardless and I’m very confident we would have come out on top.

“Being able to regroup, rest and have time to look ahead will serve us well. Having a little lay off is ok, we will scrimmage a couple times before state and be ready to go. I know these guys are hungry to get back and many of them were part of the team last year and a few of them have been there three years straight now.

“We know the routine, we won’t be overwhelmed by the stage. If we compete on the mound and in the batter’s box, we will be able to hang with anyone up there. We’re excited and ready to go.”