Braves Baseball Rally Falls Short In Peshtigo, 7-6

PESHTIGO, Wis.---The Gladstone Braves should have known that it would be a tough night on Friday when infielder Jake Wachholz took a ground ball off of his eye socket during pre-game warm-up practice in Peshtigo, Wis.

The eye swelled up, and it turned black-and-blue.

Well, Wachholz had a good sense of humor about it, but the guys didn't have much else to laugh about as they suffered a 7-6 loss to the Peshtigo Bulldogs.

The Braves rallied from three runs down to tie the game in the sixth inning, but the Bulldogs took advantage of several Gladstone mistakes to win it in the end. The Braves had plenty of baserunners, but they stranded 14 of them, including the bases loaded twice. And there was plenty of blame to go around.

Tyson Seymour a popped-up bunt attempt that led to a double play, as Jack Stephenson was caught too far off of the base. Earlier, Noah Olsen rounded second base and get tagged out as he stood a foot off of the bag. And in the sixth inning, the Braves allowed a double-steal of second base and home plate to break a 4-4 tie.

And after that play, with the infield drawn in, Gladstone shortstop Ben Schwalbach had trouble fielding an in-between hop on a weekly-hit grounder. He then threw wildly to first base, and two runs scored, giving Peshtigo the 7-4 lead.

All in all, the mistakes left Gladstone Coach Don Lauscher in a foul mood.

"I'm very disappointed," Lauscher said. "All the things that we teach and go over and over in practice. Every kind of mistake we could make tonight, we did tonight. Popping up bunts. People taking off without seeing that the bunt is down.

"Fly balls. Throwing the ball away. Baserunning errors," Lauscher continued. "You name it, it happened tonight. Like we told the kids after the game: we're better than this."

Despite the mistakes, and all of the missed opportunities on the basepaths, the Braves did not give up and kept fighting all evening long. And they had great play by their outfielders, in particular, Jake Peterson and Hunter Garling.

In the second inning, Austin Marquarot smoked one up the gap. Peterson made a full-out sprint, layed out, dove, and caught the ball. And he held on to it as he hit the ground hard. In the fifth inning, Marcus Sharkey hit a sinking line drive that Peterson lunged for and caught just above the grasstops.

Garling had to run a long way to catch two fly balls in center field early in the game. In fact, he caught four fly balls in the first two innings.

"The (Peshtigo) coaches said after the game that, 'by the way, your left fielder and center fielder, if you could leave them here until June, we'd bring them back for you," Lauscher chuckled. "And I said no, it's OK, we need them now!"

"Hunter played an outstanding game. Rizzo played an outstanding game," Lauscher continued. "I just feel for those guys. They just hustle, hustle, hustle. And there's other guys who are just kind of going through the motions."

Peshtigo took the lead in the third inning on a two-run homer by Jordan Jones, and then went ahead 3-0 in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Matt Zeske. Zeske, the leadoff batter in the Bulldog lineup, went 4-for-4, scored two runs, and drove in one.

But the Braves came back with two runs in the fifth inning. The big hit was by Hunter Garling, who had two doubles, a single, and two walks in the game.

Garling was credited with a double, but went to third on an error.

The Bulldogs made three errors that inning, and pitcher Danny Payne walked two batters.

Peshtigo added a run in the bottom of the fifth to take a 4-2 lead, but pitcher Elliot Danhoff was able to work out of it. He hung a few curveballs that the Bulldogs hit hard at times, but Danhoff was able to pitch five full innings, and got a no-decision.

The Braves tied the game in the top of the sixth inning as Jack Stephenson walked and Peterson was hit by a pitch.

That's when Seymour popped up the bunt attempt, and all of a sudden, there were two out. But the Braves kept battling as Justin Jurek and Garling each walked to reload the bases. Freshman Braeden Lamberg came threw with a sharply-hit two-run single, tying the game at 4-4. There were still two men on, but Lucas Weinert grounded out.

Brandon Cooper came on to pitch, and Zeske greeted him with a double to start the sixth inning. Cooper walked Jones to put two men on.

A fly ball landed in the outfield, but the Braves got the runner at second base. That left runners at the corners, and the Bulldogs sent the runner to second. Jurek's throw was late to second base, and then the return throw to the plate was also late.

That gave Peshtigo the lead at 5-4.

After the double error gave the Bulldogs a 7-4 lead, Gladstone battled back again in the seventh inning. Schwalbach led off with a walk, went to second on a ground ball, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on another grounder.

Gladstone was down 7-5 with two out and no one on, but Peterson drew a walk and Seymour hit a sinking line drive to center that landed for two bases. Jurek and Garling both drew walks (again), with Garling's walk forcing home a run making it 7-6.

That brought up Lamberg, who had tied the game an inning earlier. After a long at-bat that included several foul balls, he popped up to the catcher to end the game.

"Tomorrow, you'll see a different lineup," Lauscher said. "We'll switch things up tomorrow and start over."

Peshtigo improved to 10-2 on the season. Gladstone is now 11-5. The Braves drove to Wausau Friday night and will play two games on Saturday.

They will face D.C. Everest at 12:00 ET, and Wausau West at 3:00. Both of Saturday's games will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see the photos taken by Laura Lamberg.

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

4/11	1:00 PM	at Appleton North Lightning	1 - 9 (L)	0-1

4/11	3:30 PM	at Appleton North Lightning	0 - 16 (L)	0-2

4/17	4:00 PM	at Cadillac Vikings	7 - 4 (W)	1-2

4/17	6:00 PM	at Cadillac Vikings	6 - 3 (W)	2-2

4/18	11:00 AM	at Kingsley Stags	12 - 0 (W)	3-2

4/18	1:30 PM	at Kingsley Stags	6 - 3 (W)	4-2

4/20	4:30 PM	North Central Jets	ppd - rain (L)	ppd

4/21	4:30 PM	Negaunee Miners	7 - 5 (W)	5-2

4/23	4:00 PM	at Norway Knights	3 - 6 (L)	5-3

4/24	4:00 PM	at Grayling Vikings	2 - 0 (W)	6-3

4/24	6:30 PM	at Grayling Vikings	9 - 4 (W)	7-3

4/25	1:00 PM	at Charlevoix Rayders	2 - 7 (L)	7-4

4/25	3:00 PM	at Charlevoix Rayders	7 - 4 (W)	8-4

4/27	4:30 PM	Superior Central Cougars	19 - 4 (W)	9-4

4/27	6:30 PM	Superior Central Cougars	15 - 0 (W)	10-4

4/28	4:30 PM	Escanaba Eskymos	5 - 4 (W)	11-4

4/30	4:30 PM	Marquette Redmen	10 - 4 (W)	12-4

5/1	5:30 PM	at Peshtigo Bulldogs	6 - 7 (L)	12-5

5/2	12:00 PM	at D.C. Everest Evergreens	4 - 6 (L)	12-6

5/2	3:00 PM	at Wausau West Warriors	9 - 5 (W)	13-6

5/4	4:30 PM	Norway Knights	3 - 0 (W)	14-6

5/4	6:45 PM	Norway Knights	10 - 0 (W)	15-6

5/7	4:30 PM	at Escanaba Eskymos	4 - 5 (L)	15-7

5/9	10:00 AM	Hancock Bulldogs	10 - 2 (W)	16-7

5/9	12:30 PM	Hancock Bulldogs	19 - 0 (W)	17-7

5/11	5:30 PM	at Green Bay Preble	3 - 4 (L)	17-8

5/13	4:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	10 - 0 (W)	18-8

5/13	6:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	3 - 1 (W)	19-8

5/16	12:00 PM	at Green Bay Notre Dame	5 - 4 (W)	20-8

5/18	6:00 PM	at Crivitz, Wis.	4 - 3 (W)	21-8

5/19	4:30 PM	at Marinette Marines	7 - 1 (W)	22-8

5/22	5:00 PM	at Marquette Redmen	1 - 5 (L)	22-9

5/26	6:00 PM	Hancock Bulldogs	14 - 1 (W)	23-9

5/30	12:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	8 - 3 (W)	24-9

5/30	5:00 PM	Houghton Gremlins	7 - 2 (W)	25-9

6/6	10:00 AM	at Tawas	3 - 2 (W)	26-9

6/6	4:00 PM	at Traverse City St. Francis	4 - 2 (W)	27-9

6/9	12:00 PM	Muskegon Oakridge	6 - 5 (W)	28-9

6/12	11:30 AM	at Buchanan Bucks	4 - 6 (L)	28-10