JANESVILLE — With the postseason just around the corner, Finn Dillon bolstered his case for getting work on the mound for Janesville Craig once the playoffs begin.
His four scoreless innings and five strikeouts and a four-run third inning lifted the Cougars to a 7-1 nonconference win over Milton at Veterans Field at Riverside Park on Wednesday.
Dillon got ahead in the count against most of the Red Hawks he faced, and he snapped off several well-located curveballs over the course of his outing to keep a dangerous Milton lineup in check.
“Finn all year long has done really good at competing and making it really tough on the opponent to score even if we’ve got a couple guys on,” Craig coach Josh Shere said.
That was the situation Dillon found himself in during the first inning. Milton’s Charlie Kober and Braylen Vande Berg hit back-to-back singles, and the Red Hawks were seemingly in business with runners at first and third with just one out.
Dillon managed to escape with consecutive strikeouts of Milton’s No. 4 and 5 hitters Jordan Bundy and Carter Thompson.
“I was just trying to stay composed,” Dillon said. “I knew they’d try to be talking and try to get in my head, but I tend to stay composed and try to pound strikes.”
From there, the Red Hawks managed just two more hits against Dillon and Craig reliever Charlie Claas the rest of the day.
“We got some things going in the first inning right away then failed to get the ball in play with the four and five hitters, so that was kind of a letdown there,” Milton coach Kris Agnew said. “Our approach with two strikes wasn’t very good most of the day.”
The Cougars (18-6 overall) grabbed a lead for Dillon to work with in the bottom of the frame after Ryan Lemm blooped a single to center field with one out and Claas got hit with a pitch to put two on.
Nick Gregg came up next and poked a ground ball up the middle for an RBI hit, his first of two run-scoring singles.
“It was huge to see him do that because he’s been struggling a little bit,” Shere said of Gregg’s two run-scoring hits. “It was good to see him get two hits today and be the hitter we expect him to be.”
Craig proceeded to load the bases in the first, but like his Craig counterpart, Milton starter Nathan Birkhimer punched out two hitters to limit the damage.
After a three-up, three-down second for Milton, Carson McCormick started the bottom of the second with a leadoff double on the first pitch. Ben Schaffner’s sacrifice bunt and Paul Platts’ sacrifice fly gave Craig a 2-0 lead.
The bottom of the second ended on a spectacular diving catch by Milton center fielder Ayden Goll. Lemm hit a line drive to right-center field, but Goll took a good first step, left his feet and went fully horizontal to make the out.
Goll then batted to start the top of the third and reached on a base hit. He swiped second base, but the next three Milton batters all flew out to leave Goll there.
“Situational hitting was pretty poor today,” Agnew said. “That’s what wins games and what especially wins playoff games.”
The Red Hawks (11-14) made a pitching change to start the third after Agnew said Birkhimer “felt something in his arm, and we had to err on the side of caution with him.”
Milton turned to freshman Jack Spielmann, and Claas greeted him with a leadoff single. The Craig shortstop and pitcher stole second and moved to third on an overthrow on the throw from the plate with Gregg at the plate again.
He lined a pitch to right for his second RBI, then McCormick and Schaffner drove in runs with bases-loaded walks, and Platts delivered another run-scoring sacrifice fly to make it 6-0.
Dillon threw one more inning after that, then Charlie Claas came in for a three-inning relief appearance. Milton scored its one run off Claas in the seventh after the first two batters in the inning walked.
Charlie Fitzke moved up to third on a wild pitch out of Claas’ hand. Goll then hit a ground ball that turned into a 4-6-3 double play as Fitzke scored.
Wednesday’s win was the seventh in a row for Craig after losing to rival Janesville Parker on May 11, a result that turned out to be something of a wakeup call for the east-side team.
“After we lost to them, it’s like we can be beat by anyone,” Dillon said. “We just have to play hard every game to win.”
The Janesville teams will play a third time in their postseason opener at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Riverside.
“I think these guys want that matchup, so we’re looking forward to it,” Shere said.
The Cougars have two more regular-season games remaining, one at winless Madison La Follette at 5 p.m. Thursday and another at 11 a.m. Saturday at Westosha Central, the top seed in the teams’ Division 1 sectional.
Milton has one regular-season game left, a nonconference meeting with Burlington at ABC Supply Stadium in Beloit at 5 p.m. Friday. The sixth-seeded Red Hawks will host a playoff game against No. 11 Wilmot at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
JANESVILLE CRAIG 7, MILTON 1
Milton 000 000 1 — 1 4 1
Craig 114 001 X — 7 7 1
Leading hitters — Kober (M) 2x4, Gregg (JC) 2x4, Dillon (JC) 2x4. 2B — Kober (M), McCormick (JC).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — M: Birkhimer L, 2-4-2-2-0-2; Spielmann 3-3-4-3-3-2; Thompson 1-0-1-1-2-0. JC: Dillon W, 4-3-0-0-1-5; Claas 3-1-1-1-3-1.
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