A’s Refuse to Quit; Rousing Comeback Beats Menasha
Posted: August 4, 2010
Sometimes, when you try to relate an incident and know the retelling isn;t going to get the reaction it deserves, you just throw your hands up and say, “You had to be there.”
You had to be in Menasha Tuesday night.
The Sheboygan A’s found themselves down by a 7-0 count after two innings. Steadily they chiseled and clawed their way back into the ball game and won it with a 4-run ninth inning.
The final was a 14-11 Sheboygan A’s win over the Menasha MACs.
The bad news is that Green Bay pounded Oshkosh 16-5 to clinch first place in the Northeastern Wisconsin League season. The A’s have to win out to finish second for home field advantage in the playoffs, which are scheduled to begin this weekend.
The A’s have four games remaining – they are at Wildwood Park tonight (7:30 p.m.) with De Pere, they travel to Oshkosh Thursday night and they are home again with De Pere in a doubleheader Friday night (7 p.m.).
The standings look like this:
Green Bay 17-7 (season completed)
Appleton 15-9 (season completed)
Sheboygan 12-8 (four games remaining)
Menasha 13-11 (season completed)
Manitowoc 12-11 (one game remaining)
Ryan Schilter’s 3-run home run and broken bat double (which came about when he lined both the baseball and the broken barrel of his bat at MenashA’s third baseman, whose decision to dive for cover was the wise one) were the key hits in the A’s comeback.
While their teammates were battling back at the plate, the A’s middle pitchers Ryan Hamm and Ross Fassbinder were effective n keeping the powerful Menasha bats at bay.
The two teams staggered into the ninth inning with Menasha on top, 11-10.
After one out, Matt Schilter, who took four hits into his final at bat, was hit by a pitch. Then Ryan Schilter and Doug Dekoning singled, Dekoning knocking in Matt Schilter with the tying run. Here Cody Marshall and Justin Hunt were hit by pitches and the lead run scored. Then the MACs committed two consecutive errors enabling the A’s to score four runs in the inning.
Dekoning pitched the ninth for the save, but that, too, was interesting as the MACs loaded the bases with a walk, hit and hit batsman before Dekoning got the final out. Fassbinder the the win; Dekoning the save.
Both Schilters and Dekoning had four hits in the game with Marshall and Joey Patzman both getting two as the A’s racked up 18 hits.
The Sheboygan A's are members of the Wisconsin State League and Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League. The A's have helped develop more than 43 players that have reached professional baseball, including 2002 World Series Champion Jarrod Washburn (Anaheim Angels). All Sheboygan A's home games are played at Wildwood Baseball Park in Sheboygan. Connect with the A's on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
