Wausau Woodchucks win regular-season finale at Kenosha, clinch home field for Northwoods League playoff series

For Wausau Pilot & Review

KENOSHA – The Wausau Woodchucks finished its regular-season schedule with a 5-3 win over the Kenosha Kingfish on Saturday night at Simmons Field.

With the victory, Wausau earns home-field advantage in its best-of-three series with the Madison Mallards in the Northwoods League playoffs.

The Woodchucks (50-19), winners of the first-half title in the Great Lakes West Division, will head to Madison on Sunday at 6:05 p.m. to take on the second-half champion Mallards in Game 1 of the division championship series. Game 2 will be played on Monday at 6:05 p.m. at Athletic Park in Wausau, with Game 3 also in Wausau if necessary, on Tuesday.

The Great Lakes East playoff series will be between the Rockford Rivets and Kalamazoo Growlers, with winner taking on either Madison or Wausau on Wednesday.

The Great Plains division series will pit the Duluth Huskies against the La Crosse Loggers (East Division) and the Willmar Stingers vs. the St. Cloud Rox.

The Northwoods League championship game will be played on Thursday.

On Saturday night, the Chucks fell behind after allowing runs in the second and fourth innings. Starter Edwin Alicea (Nova Southeastern) exited after pitching 3 1/3 innings. He would be replaced by Logan Butler (Keiser). Butler recorded the final two outs of the fourth.

The Chucks scored one in the fifth after Jake Berkland (Mankato) batted home Hayden Christiansen, who led off the inning with a single.

Butler kept the Kingfish scoreless through the sixth inning and the Chucks tied it with one swing by Val Cerna Jr., who crushed a solo homer to right field in the seventh, his second long ball of the season.

After hitting the first batter in the seventh, Bulter was pulled for Carson Hawkes (Utah St. Eastern). He would walk a man home with the bases loaded and the Chucks trailed 3-2. Jonathon Amonica (Keiser) would come in with the bases still loaded and get a strikeout to end the threat.

Wausau tied it back up in the eighth Jake Berkland scored on a sacrifice fly RBI from Vance Sheahan. Amonica would come back in for the eighth. With trouble on the bases, Sheahan fired home to get a runner and keep the Kingfish off the board.

The Chucks would take the lead back in the top of the ninth after Samuel Fischer (Florida International) singled to score Christian Smith-Johnson (Texas A&M Corpus-Christi). Drew Berkland (Minnesota) followed it up with another single to score his brother Jake. Amonica finished off the win on the mound.