GRAND CHUTE — In a back-and-forth matchup with a chance to go to the Division 4 state championship on the line, Pittsville fell 6-2 to Johnson Creek, ending their return to the WIAA state baseball tournament after 10 seasons.
After going down quietly in the first inning, Pittsville took an early lead in the second. Jameson Krueger drove in second baseman Kash Ostermann with a single into left center that scored the game’s first run.
Behind five solid innings from Pittsville pitcher Logan Zickert, the Panthers kept Johnson Creek mostly in check up until the fourth.
Then Johnson Creek put a dent in Pittsville with two hits, and two runs to capitalize on three Panther errors and jump in front for their first lead of the game. The Panthers tied it up in the fourth after Grant Rademan was hit by a pitch. Senior Ben Friday evened the score with a double into center field that drove in Rademan.
Across five innings, Zickert finished striking out 10 while yielding six hits and two earned runs before Dawson Luther entered as a relief. Then in the sixth inning things took an even steeper turn for the worse when Johnson Creek cashed in four runs on three hits.
The sixth inning boost gave Johnson Creek a four-run lead and presented a hill too steep for the Panthers to climb out of, knocking them out of the state tournament in the WIAA Division 4 state semifinal.
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Reporter Alfred Smith III at alfred.smith@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @AlfredS_III.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Pittsville Panthers claw early, but falter late in WIAA state semifinal loss
Reporting by Alfred Smith III, Marshfield News-Herald / Wausau Daily Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
