A’s Win on Walk-Off to stay perfect in the Northeastern Wisconsin League
Posted: June 18, 2015
Preceded by what may have been the strangest course of events in ninth inning come back history, Tony Grannis hit a sacrifice fly to knock in Cole Miklavcic with the winning run as the Sheboygan A’s beat the Appleton Legends 4-3 at Wildwood Park Wednesday night.
Unfortunately for Grannis and Miklavcic, it wasn’t the final entry into the scorebook that fans will remember. It was, rather, the old “throw a wild pitch while trying to execute an intentional walk” trick that did in the Legends and put the A’s at 5-0 in the Northeastern Wisconsin League.
It was as wild a ninth inning as Wildwood Park has ever seen and it will have some shelf life as several hundred fans, most there for Midwest Communications Night, Legend Larry s Wing Wednesday and $1 hot dogs, were still on hand.
While nothing so strange as an intentional walk wild pitch occurred, there were enough gripping events to keep the fans in their seats.
Appleton took a 1-0 lead on Earl Vorpagel’s RBI single.
Carter Amundsen and Blake Fleischman both doubled as the A’s regained the lead 2-1 in the seventh.
Vorpagle’s second RBI hit made it 2-2 after eight.
Tyler Nehring’s triple put Appleton ahead 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth.
Then came the improbable rally.
Taylor Grimm led off with a single and handyman Ben Gordon entered the game to run for him. When Miklavcic’s follow-up sacrifice bunt was mishandled and a wild pitch followed that, the A’s had the tying and lead runs in scoring position.
After a strikeout, Feischman stepped in. Remembering his two homes runs against them in the playoff game last year, Appleton elected to walk him. During the attempt, big Mason Pingle lauched one over his catcher’s head and the alert Gordon sped in from third to tie the game. Miklavcic moved up a base on the play and after Appleton was eventually successful in walking Fleischman, Gannis hit the game-ending sacrifice fly.
The A’s travel to West Allis tonight and then return home Friday night for the big Bud Light Night against Manitowoc at 7:30 pm.
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.
