Langley’s Bat Propels A’s To Championship Series
Posted: August 7, 2013
Chad Langley’s 2-out base hit drove in Harry Steldt with the winning run in the 11th inning to give the Sheboygan A’s a 6-5 walk-off win over Appleton and a berth in the Northeastern Wisconsin League’s championship series.
The A’s begin a best of three series at Menasha Friday night with a 7:15 first pitch. Game two will be in Sheboygan Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Game three, if necessary, will be played in Menasha Sunday at noon.
Tuesday night’s summary is simple. With two out in the bottom of the 11th, Steldt doubled and Langley drove him in to give the A’s a 6-5 victory at Wildwood Park.
But the game was a lot more complicated than that.
Appleton scored a run in the first inning and the A’s tied it in the sixth when Cole Heili doubled, stole third and roared home on Jordan DeBoer’s “just deep enough” fly ball.
The Legends 1-0 lead had lasted six innings; the 1-1 tie lasted about six minutes.
Appleton scored four, only two earned, in the top half of the seventh to take a 5-1 lead.
That didn’t last long either as the A’s pushed over four of their own in the bottom of the seventh for a 5-5 tie. Following a lead-off single by Jeremy McCarty, three straight walks produced one run. Then a single and an outfield error scored two more and after that Chad Langley produced a fly ball just deep enough to bring in the once again hard-charging Heili with tying run and knot the game at five.
The score remained until the 11th inning.
Fans were getting a great bargain: two pitcher’s duels in the same night. First between the starters, Appleton’s Kevin Kangas and the A’s Jake Schaefer, and second between what turned out to be “long” relievers, Eric Schmitz of the A’s and John Hendrick of the Legends.
Steldt and Langley finally won it in the 11th after the A’s blew chances in the ninth and 10th.
After a rocky start (three runs in the seventh – only one earned as the result of a dropped fly ball), Schmitz got the win with 4 2/3 innings of gutty relief. Schaefer went the first 6 1/3 giving up just two earned runs.
Steldt had two hits and walked three times (one intentionally); Langley had two hits, a sacrifice fly and a walk; and Jordan DeBoer had two hits and a sacrifice fly.
The A’s take a 36-23 record into the championship series.
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.
