The Sheboygan A’s and the Burlington Barons split a doubleheader at Wildwood Baseball Park Sunday afternoon, the Barons taking the opener, 6-5, and the A’s claiming the nightcap, 8-5.
The split puts the A’s at 1-1 in the Wisconsin State League and 3-2 overall. Burlington is 2-1 in the league. The A’s travel to Green Bay Tuesday and return home Wednesday to play Kewaskum in the game that was rained out last week.
Burlington took 3-0 lead in the first inning of game one, finding safe dropping zones for bloop hits. The A’s came back to tie the game at three with Ross Krist getting a clutch 2-out single in the second and Harry Steldt hitting a solo home run in the third. Then Jacob Neese’s fifth inning double knocked in two for a 5-3 lead.
Following Neese’s double, the A’s managed only one hit while Burlington used three walks and three hits to score three runs and take the 6-5 win.
Noah Imrie pitched well for the A’s until sixth inning walks helped Burlington to a tie and gave the Barons’ Christian Browner a shot at being a hero. He delivered with the 2-out game-winning hit in the seventh. Davis Wilson took the loss in relief.
While Jared Reklaitis was holding Burlington at bay in the second game, the A’s used six free passes to their advantage and wound up an 8-5 winner.
Reklaitis struck out 13 in his six innings of work to earn the win. Harry Steldt had two hits and Mark Wanner and Jacob Neese doubles. The A’s were aided by six walks, two balks, two wild pitches, and a hit batsman.