A’s Reach WABC Championship Before Falling in Extra-Inning Classic
Posted: June 28, 2026
The Sheboygan A’s put together an impressive weekend at the Wisconsin Amateur Baseball Classic, winning three of five games and advancing to the championship before falling to the Hartford Hawks, 8-7, in a nine-inning classic Sunday afternoon.
Both of the A’s losses in the tournament came in extra innings.
Sheboygan opened tournament play Friday night with an 8-6 victory over the Chicago Rockies. The A’s struck quickly with two first-inning runs before extending the lead to 5-1 in the second behind George Hoss’ two-run single and Riley Palmquist’s RBI groundout. Chicago battled back to tie the game at 5-5, but Jimmy Juergensen put the A’s back in front with a solo home run in the third. Sheboygan added insurance runs in the fifth and sixth to hold off the Rockies and begin tournament play 1-0.
The offense stayed hot Saturday morning as the A’s rolled past the Milwaukee Tropics, 9-1. After falling behind 1-0 in the opening inning, Sheboygan answered with four runs in the second before breaking the game open with a five-run third. Chase Hanselman drove in three runs with a pair of doubles, George Hoss collected two RBI singles, and Brad Rindfleisch added an RBI hit as the A’s improved to 2-0 in pool play.
Saturday’s second game proved to be the tournament’s first dramatic finish. Trailing the Milwaukee Beavers 2-0 entering the seventh inning, the A’s rallied for three runs to take a 3-2 lead, highlighted by Connor Lasch’s two-run single. The Beavers answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings, where Milwaukee walked off with a run in the eighth to hand Sheboygan its lone pool play loss, 4-3.
Despite the setback, the A’s advanced to Sunday’s semifinals, where they defeated the Kewaskum A’s, 7-3. The game also counted as a Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League contest after the teams’ June 10 meeting was rained out. Kewaskum jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead before Sheboygan erupted for five runs in the fifth. Alex Ames tied the game with a two-run single before Harry Steldt followed with a two-run hit to put the A’s in front for good. The A’s added two insurance runs in the seventh to punch their ticket to the championship while also improving to 4-2 in NEWBL play.
The championship game lived up to the moment.
Hartford carried a 2-1 lead into the middle innings before the A’s rallied to take a 3-2 advantage entering the bottom of the sixth. The Hawks answered immediately, scoring three runs to reclaim a 5-3 lead.
Sheboygan responded once again in the seventh. Chase Hanselman doubled to score George Hoss before Jimmy Juergensen lifted a sacrifice fly to center, tying the game at 5-5 and sending the contest to extra innings.
With each extra inning beginning with a runner on second, the A’s twice grabbed the lead. Alex Ames delivered an RBI single in the eighth to score Moxson Kernz for a 6-5 advantage, but Hartford answered in the bottom half after an error allowed the tying run to score.
In the ninth, Hudson Wagner lined an RBI single to center to score Hanselman and give Sheboygan a 7-6 lead. Hartford answered immediately in the bottom half, tying the game with a leadoff RBI single before eventually pushing across the winning run on another base hit to claim the tournament championship, 8-7.
Sheboygan returns to Wisconsin State League action this week with three straight games against the West Allis Nationals, Tuesday and Thursday at home and Wednesday on the road.
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.
