Posted: June 29, 2009

Whitnall baseball

The Whitnall Falcons are the division leaders with less than half the regular season remaining.

With four league wins from June 23 to Friday, the Falcons improved to 10-7 overall and 8-3 in the Woodland Conference as of Monday, and were tied atop the South Division standings with Cudahy.

"We had a good week," Whitnall coach Brian Johnsen said. "Our pitching was great."

Falcons pitchers limited their opponents to just eight runs, seven of which came in an error-plagued, 17-7, five-inning win over the visiting St. Francis Mariners on Friday.

The Falcons won, 3-1 and 8-0, in a doubleheader sweep against the host St. Thomas More Cavaliers on June 23.

Justin Quinn allowed an unearned run over seven innings in the first game and Brock McGinn pitched a complete-game shutout in the nightcap.

Ryan Dembinski knocked in two runs on two hits in the first game. In the second game, Alex Jaskulski went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored and sophomore Geoff Wisialowski hit a solo home run in his second varsity at-bat of the season.

Nolyn White pitched five shutout innings in a 10-0, five-inning victory over the visiting Shorewood Greyhounds on June 25. The effort lowered White's ERA to a team-best 1.47, and he also has improved his batting average to .432.

"Nolyn has quietly gone about his business and really improved," Johnsen said. "He is starting to hit to all three fields and on the mound his control has improved. He deserves credit for his improvement."

The Falcons scored three times in the first on RBIs by Quinn, McGinn and White, and a seven-run fifth that included eight hits - two each by Quinn and Dembinski - ended the game.

In the slugfest with the Mariners, St. Francis jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a home run by Tony Urbaniak but the Falcons responded with four runs in the first highlighted by a two-run single by Wisialowski. In an 11-run second inning, Jaskulski had two hits and two RBIs for the Mariners, who made six errors.

Jaskulski finished 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs. Wisialowski also had three RBIs.

Greenfield baseball

Needing a win in the worst way, the Greenfield Hustlin' Hawks could not come through in the clutch against Port Washington in the South Milwaukee Wood Bat Classic on Saturday.

The result was a 5-1 loss, one of six in the week that pushed Greenfield's losing streak to 11 straight games entering this week.

"We had a lot of chances to win," Greenfield coach Lee Kleszczynski said. "And the way they won, we didn't make the smart plays."

Port Washington's leadoff hitter in the top of the ninth inning hit a ground ball back to the pitcher who tried unsuccessfully to beat the batter to first base. The next batter dropped down a bunt that resulted in a throwing error.

"It just fell apart from there," said Kleszczynski, whose team began this week 3-15 overall and 1-10 in the Woodland Conference.

Jason Mermolia pitched a complete game for the Hawks, their first of the season, but Greenfield left six runners in scoring position.

"The team's hanging in there," Kleszczynski said. "We don't have any finger-pointing going on. We're a young team and learning. We're just learning the hard way by making mistakes."

The Hawks lost five other games from June 23 to Saturday by a combined score of 42-10.

West Allis Central baseball

The slumping West Allis Central Bulldogs ran into the toughest stretch of their season.

The result: four more losses that pushed Central's losing streak to 11 straight games as of Monday.

"What's really letting us down is our defense," West Allis Central coach Rick Hoppert said. "I feel like we're still pitching OK, but we're giving teams extra outs and it's coming back to bite us every time."

The Bulldogs lost to visiting Marquette, 10-2, June 22; at Menomonee Falls, 12-3, June 23; at home to Oak Creek, 10-8, in 10 innings June 24; and at Oak Creek, 10-1, June 25. Central began this week 8-12 overall and 4-9 in the Greater Metro Conference.

"It felt good to play well again for a day," Hoppert said of the extra-inning loss to Oak Creek. "We felt we turned the corner there. We hope it was a turning point, despite what happened the next day."

Joe Klobukowski hit a home run in the second game against Oak Creek and had two hits against Marquette. Tony Gambeck homered against Menomonee Falls.

West Allis Hale baseball

The West Allis Hale Huskies' chances for a winning season in the Greater Metro Conference took a significant hit with three straight recent loses.

Since moving to 4-5 in the GMC with a win over Marquette on June 18, the Huskies lost, 11-7, against the host Menomonee Falls Indians; 5-4, against the visiting Muskego Warriors; and, 7-3, at Muskego.

The Huskies were 4-8 in the GMC (8-10 overall) as of Monday and need six wins in their final eight league games to finish at .500.

"We do have to play better than we have," Hale coach Paul Dooley said. "That's the gist of the whole thing. And we have to find a way to do the little things."

Dooley said in the 5-4 loss against the Warriors, his team got the leadoff batter on in both the sixth and seventh innings but failed to move him over with a sacrifice bunt.

Eric Abel continued his hot hitting despite the team's struggles. He homered Friday against the Warriors. Against Muskego the night before, he tripled, scored a run and knocked one in. Against the Indians he was 3-for-4 with a double and triple and three RBIs on June 22.

Anthony Mueller added a home run and two RBIs in the loss to Falls.

 

- Compiled by David Cotey

GreenfieldNOW.com

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