GRAND CHUTE – Westosha Central defeated Arrowhead, 2-1, Monday morning in the WIAA Division 1 state baseball quarterfinals at Fox Cities Stadium to advance to Wednesday's state semifinal.
A wild pitch by Arrowhead reliever Brayden Ramus allowing the go-ahead run to score was the difference in a closely contested quarterfinal. Arrowhead's starter Peter Kussow pitched into the seventh for the Warhawks before being pulled on a pitch count, going toe-to-toe with Westosha Central's Brody Schulte up until that point.
Warhawks head coach Nick Brengosz was complimentary of how his junior starter battled during six-plus innings, allowing two walks, two hits and two runs while striking out seven.
"I'm really, really proud of Peter Kussow for settling in. I thought he was at his most dominant late in the game," Brengosz said. "Our pitching staff is the reason we are here, and absolutely not the reason we lost today."
Schulte pitched a complete game for the Falcons, tallying three strikeouts with three hits, three walks and just one run allowed.
"(Schulte)'s the guy they all play off," Falcons head coach Jacob Morman said. "We've just given him the ball. We gave it to him in the regional final, to win conference, last week to secure the deal here and we just knew he was gonna be the guy to have the ball. We knew it was gonna be ready to go and he just went out there and pitched a heck of a baseball game today."
Jake Urban scratched across the first Westosha Central run in the top of the third on an RBI groundout, giving the Falcons the 1-0 lead. Arrowhead's Cam Carter answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-out run-scoring triple to right field to tie the game. Yamato Takahashi nearly drove home Carter on a ball hit down the third-base line in the ensuing at-bat, but Falcons third baseman Bryce Backus stabbed the hard grounder and fired a one-hop strike to first to keep the game knotted at one.
A starting pitcher's duel continued into the seventh, when Arrowhead's Kussow was pulled on a 103-pitch count for reliever Brayden Ramus. Before being pulled, Kussow had walked the leadoff hitter, Evan Leafblad, who was moved over on a Backus sacrifice bunt. Ramus walked the next hitter, and a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance to second and third. A Mason Mitacek ground ball to short was fielded by Brendan Foley, who fired home from his pulled-in infield spot for the second out. With runners on the corners and two outs, a wild pitch by Ramus allowed Carson Sieler to score from third, giving Westosha Central the lead.
"We knew in order to win this baseball game, it was probably going to be something like that," Morman said. "Small ball, getting a bunt down, getting a squeeze down, moving runners and taking advantage of our chances."
Brengosz was disappointed to see an uncharacteristic error manifest at such a crucial point in the game.
"Balls to the backstop is definitely not something we're accustomed to, we had definitely more of those than we've had almost at any point this year," Brengosz said. "It's frustrating when you feel like you helped them get the win instead of playing our style of baseball."
Arrowhead got the tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh, but was unable to score to keep its season alive. Morman said he expects the momentum for Westosha Central to carry into Wednesday in the form of confidence that they can rise to the biggest moments.
"The number of one-run games that we've won this season ... so our guys are comfortable in this situations," Morman said. "I think our guys are ready to execute whatever we ask them to do in those situations. Just understanding that we can play here and we're coming here to win a state championship."
Westosha Central advances to play the winner of No. 1 De Pere and No. 8 Mensasha in the second D1 quarterfinal Monday morning.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WIAA state baseball tournament: Westosha Central defeats Arrowhead to advance to semifinals
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