Hawks win wild first two games
Submitted by admin on Sat, 04/26/2025 - 17:09
By Derick Kelly
The Prairie du Chien baseball team earned a pair of wild, high scoring victories this past week to not only give the team some much needed momentum, but it also keeps the Hawks in the SWC conference race in a four-way tie for second place, one game behind first place Platteville.
The Hawks traveled to Cuba City last Monday, April 14 for a game with the Cubans in less-than-ideal conditions and the two teams combined for 27 runs on 28 hits and five errors. The Cubans took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning before the Hawks responded with an astounding 10 runs in the top of the third inning, with eight of those 10 runs coming with two outs.
The Cuban offense was not finished scoring as they slowly chipped away at the Hawks 10-2 lead with six runs in the fourth inning, two in the fifth to tie the game up 10-10 and two in the sixth inning to take a 12-10 lead over the Hawks going into the seventh inning. A leadoff walk by Drake Chesebro was followed by a double by Brady Lenzendorf and an RBI single by Bryce Lenzendorf to score Chesebro as the Hawks had runners at the corners (including the tying run at third base) with no outs. The Cubans managed to turn a double play two pitches later but were unable to get Brady Lenzendorf raced home from third to tie the game at 12-12. Cuba City got the Hawks to fly out for the third out as the game went to the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Cubans got back-to-back walks to start the inning before a sacrifice moved the runners to second and third with just one out. Prairie du Chien issued an intentional walk to the next batter to load the bases and create a force out at any bag. PdC’s Jack Simmons struck Cuba City’s Cameryn Guler looking for the second out before Brice Buxton popped up to short for the third out as the game went into extra innings.
Cuba City got two quick outs in the top of the eighth inning before Deacon Chesebro singled to center. Brennan Koecke followed with a walk before Drake Chesebro singled to right field to score his brother Deacon while Koecke advanced to second base on the play. Brady Lenzendorf drove the first pitch he saw to center field as Koecke managed to score from second base on the play to make the score 14-12 in favor of Prairie du Chien. The Cubans got Bryce Lenzendorf to ground out for the final out of the inning and send the game to the bottom of the eighth down two runs.
Cuba City entered their half of the eighth inning with the top of their batting order coming to bat. Lead off man Tyson Richard doubled to start things off and was followed by a walk by Gavin Vaassen to put the tying run at first base. Simmons got Andy Loeffelholz to pop up to catcher Bryce Lenzendorf for the first out before striking out Breyden Johll looking for the second out. A two-out walk by Henry Kruser however loaded the bases for the Cubans as the winning run stood at first base. Talan VanNatta worked a bases loaded walk to score Richard and put Kruser (the winning run) in scoring position at second base. Much like the end of the seventh inning, Simmons was able to work out of a bases loaded jam as he struck out Cuba City’s Frankie Welp for the third and final out of the game as the Hawks held on 14-13 for their first win of the season.
Every Hawk that had a hit in the game actually collected multiple hits in the victory as Brady Lenzendorf (2-for-5 with a double, two runs scored, one walk and one RBI), Bryce Lenzendorf (3-for-5 with one run scored, one walk and 5 RBIs), Westin Marx (2-for-5), Simmons (2-for-4 with a walk and one run scored), Deacon Chesebro (3-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI) and Drake Chesebro (2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, three runs scored and four RBIs) all had multiple hits for the Hawks.
Despite not having any hits in the game, Koecke (0-for-2 with three walks and three runs scored), Abe Amundson (0-for-5 with one run scored and two RBIs) and Jack MacEachern (0-for-3 with two walks and one run scored) each added to the Hawks offensive attack.
The pitching line for games like these is typically ugly and this one is no different especially with four errors by the Prairie defense added in. Starting pitcher Prestin Nolan went 3.2 innings, allowing eight runs (only one earned) on eight hits and three walks with one strikeout before being relieved by Amundson (three runs (all earned) on three hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 1.1 innings pitched) and winning pitcher Simmons (two runs allowed (both earned) on three hits and six walks with three strikeouts in 3.0 innings pitched).
Three nights later, the Hawks traveled to Lancaster looking to build off their win in very similar weather conditions and it also turned into an extra innings shootout as the two teams combined for 21 runs on 30 hits, 10 errors and nine walks in just eight innings.
The Hawks scored once in the top of the first to take an early lead before the Flying Arrows answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-1 after one. Each team scored a run in their half of the second inning as the Flying Arrows led 4-2 after two innings. A five-run third inning gave Prairie du Chien a 7-4 lead after three innings. Lancaster responded in the bottom of the fourth with four runs to retake the lead before adding one more run in the fifth to go up 9-7 on the Hawks.
Lancaster entered the seventh inning needing just three outs to end a 25-game losing streak to Prairie du Chien that dated back to May 2013. After Drake Chesebro reached first base on an error to start the inning, Koecke walked to put runners at first and second for the Hawks with no outs. Deacon Chesebro singled on a bunt back to the pitcher but Drake was thrown out at third on the play as the Hawks now had runners at first and second with one out. Brady Lenzendorf struck out swinging for the second out of the inning as the Hawks were now down to their final out. Bryce Lenzendorf earned a two-out walk to load the bases for Marx. Down to his final strike, Marx singled on a pop fly to center field on a 3-2 count to score Koecke and Deacon Chesebro and tie the game 9-9. On the first pitch he saw, MacEachern hit a fly ball to right field that was misplayed, allowing Bryce Lenzendorf to score and give the Hawks a 10-9 lead. The Flying Arrows struck out Amundson to get the third out of the inning.
Lancaster still had a rally of their own up their sleeves. Bryce Lenzendorf struck out Max Baudhuin for the first out of the inning before back-to-back singles by Tyler Timmerman and Shea Luckey put runners on first and second. Lenzendorf then got Nolan Wolf to ground into a fielder’s choice at second base, putting runners at first and third base with two outs for the Flying Arrows. Lancaster’s Toay Ragatz singled on the first pitch he saw to score Timmerman and tie the game 10-10. The Hawks got a groundout by Vinny Ubersox for the third out of the inning to send the game into extra innings for a third time in six games so far this season.
A leadoff single by Simmons to start the eighth inning was followed by a walk by Deacon Chesebro as the Hawks had runners at first and second and no outs. Koecke was retired via strikeout to bring up Drake Chesebro with one out and he responded with a double to center field that scored Simmons to give PdC a 11-10 lead with one out. Lancaster was able to tag Deacon Chesebro out at home on a fielder’s choice by Brady Lenzendorf for the second out of the inning before getting Bryce Lenzendorf to fly out to left field for the final out of the inning.
The Flying Arrows entered the bottom of the eighth inning once again looking for late heroics. Bryce Lenzendorf got Connor Breuer to ground out to first base for the first out of the inning before John Clements singled to right field as Lancaster now had the tying run on base. A stolen base by Clements put him at second base with one out. There would be no more dramatics however as Lenzendorf struck out Brady McCartney for the Arrows second out and then got Baudhuin to pop up to MacEachern at first base for the third out as the Hawks (2-4) pulled out a 11-10 win to move into a four-way tie for second place in the SWC at 1-1 and extend the program’s winning streak over Lancaster to 26 consecutive games.
Bryce Lenzendorf (four runs allowed (all earned) on 10 hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched) earned the win in relief of starter Abe Amundson (six runs allowed (four earned) on five hits and three walks with four strikeouts in 3.1 innings). Drake Chesebro (4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and three RBIs), Marx (3-for-5 with a home run, one run scored and four RBIs), Deacon Chesebro (2-for-4 with two runs scored and one walk), Brady Lenzendorf (2-for-6 with one run scored) and Amundson (2-for-4 with one run scored, one walk and one RBI) all had multiple hits for the Hawks. MacEachern added a triple for his only hit of the game.
Prairie du Chien remained on the road last night at Richland Center before returning home to host La Crosse Logan tomorrow night and River Valley on Friday night.
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