GRAND CHUTE – It was an early start with a 9 a.m. first pitch time for Fond du Lac’s first appearance at the state tournament since 2019.
Before Fond du Lac players and fans were able to have their morning coffee, the Cardinals were down 8-0 through two innings.
“The guys competed the entire game. Obviously, the first two innings were a little shaky for us and didn’t really go our way with what we expected,” Fond du Lac head coach Jason Schneider said. “They obviously came ready.”
Fond du Lac fell to Madison Memorial 8-4 in the WIAA Division 1 state tournament quarterfinals. With the loss, Fond du Lac’s season ended with a 21-9 record and its nine-game winning streak was snapped. It beat No. 1 seed and previously undefeated Germantown in the sectional semifinals before punching its ticket to state with a win over Neenah in the sectional championship.
“I don’t think we were expected to make state at all. So just being able to come here with these boys, they’re battling, competing the entire season,” Schneider said. “We flipped the switch kind of towards the halfway point, so can’t be more proud of these guys. We had a really good group of kids this year.”
Madison Memorial scored three runs in the bottom of the first. Fond du Lac was in position to get out of the second inning before Memorial scored five runs with two outs.
A pitching change was made by Fond du Lac, as Brody Haus came in and settled things down. In 4.1 innings pitched, he had six strikeouts, two walks, gave up four hits and no runs were allowed.
“He’s battled all year for us. He was our big relief guy coming in, throwing strikes, getting the job done and he couldn’t have done any better today,” Schneider said.
The Cardinals responded to the Spartans big second inning with two runs in the top of the third, but left the bases loaded. They added two more in the sixth inning, but it wasn’t enough to erase the deficit.
“We had the chances, we had the base runners, but we didn’t capitalize on all of them,” Schneider said.
The loss ends the high school career of the 13 seniors on Fond du Lac’s roster. Across four seasons they won 62 games and ended at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in the state tournament.
“I was just trying to take it all in, every moment. Just remember the days that I was able to play with my best friends and just play the game,” Fond du Lac senior Jack Brenner said.
Brenner finished the game by going 1-for-3 with an RBI, a steal and a hit by pitch. He’s signed to play college baseball at the University of Oklahoma but with the season over is focusing on the MLB Draft which will be July 11-12.
“If I get drafted I for sure won’t go to Oklahoma. If I don’t get drafted then I’m going to Oklahoma,” Brenner said.
Amongst the crowd watching Fond du Lac were kids wearing Fond du Lac baseball jerseys and hats.
“Hopefully the youth see this as an opportunity for them in the future and they get hungry so when their time comes they can make this happen again,” Schneider said.
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Fond du Lac baseball falls behind early, loses to Madison Memorial
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern | USA TODAY Network
