Seymour didn’t win the battle with New Berlin Eisenhower in the WIAA Division 2 state championship baseball game in Grand Chute on June 19, but the Thunder left Fox Cities Stadium with an unforgettable highlight, all the same.
Seymour junior left-hander Carson Staffeldt recorded the final out of the fourth inning against Eisenhower when a line drive off the bat of Alex Michna lodged between Staffeldt’s right forearm and his body, sending the glove that had been attached to that hand flying. Staffeldt quickly showed the ball to the umpire, then briefly confronted the pain that came with it.
Staffeldt shook it off — and left the glove on the mound — as he stormed back to the Seymour dugout.
Staffeldt, who worked two innings of relief, was replaced by a pinch hitter in the fifth, but he re-entered the game as an outfielder in the sixth, and he batted in the seventh.
Eisenhower would get the final highlight, a double by Sam Hirthe that clinched the program’s first baseball state title with a 5-4 win.
New Berlin resides in Waukesha County, just outside of Milwaukee; Seymour is just due west of Green Bay. The Thunder was making its first state-tournament appearance in baseball and defeated defending champ La Crosse Aquinas to reach the final.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Seymour pitcher catches line drive — without help from his glove — during state championship game
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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