Devils remain in 2nd place, but still in HTL race
JEFFERSON — Like the Milwaukee Brewers the Jefferson Blue Devils find themselves looking up at the league leader after suffering a 6-3 Home Talent League Southeast Section loss to visiting Albion at Fischer Field Sunday.
In this case the Blue Devils’ Chicago Cubs are the Fort Atkinson Generals (9-5), who with a weekend split remain one game ahead of Jefferson (8-6) the East Division field heading into the season finale next Sunday.
Only the top two teams qualify for the Southeast Section playoffs, slated to begin Aug. 10. Jefferson will host Whitewater, while Fort Atkinson travels to Deerfield in Sunday’s finale.
Not out of the picture is Lake Mills (7-6) which will face Cambridge Sunday, but also has a make-up game with Orfordville on its schedule.
Albion’s four-run eighth inning broke a 2-2 tie Sunday. Aaron Manogue’s two-run single broke the deadlock, before Aaron Laskowski tripled home two more runs off Blue Devils starter Bill Baumann.
Jefferson tied the game at 2-all with solo runs in the sixth and seventh. In the sixth, Justin Thiede led off the inning by being hit by a Mike Nanstad pitch before coming around to score on Travis Wagner’s RBI single. However, Jefferson left the bases loaded after no outs as Nanstad coaxed three straight fly balls.
In the seventh, Thiede singled with two outs and scored on Chris Folbrecht’s RBI knock up the middle tying the score at 2-2.
Albion (7-5) scored two runs in the top of the first without a single ball leaving the infield. The Blue Devils had two of their three errors, while Pete Millar added an RBI infield single.
Nanstad went the distance, striking out nine while scattering nine hits to earn the win.
The Blue Devils (19-10) will play at Lake Mills Thursday in HTL Night League. Gametime at Campus Field is 7:30 p.m.
ALBION 6, JEFFERSON 3
Albion 200 000 040 — 6 13 0
Jefferson 000 001 101 — 3 9 3
Albion (ab-r-h-rbi) — Laskowski 5-1-2-2, Eastman 5-1-1-0, Vaade 5-0-1-0, Johnson 5-0-1-0, P. Millar 5-1-2-1, M. Millar 0-0-0-0, Towns 4-1-0-0, Stone 1-0-0-0, Rusch 0-0-0-0, Schmeling 3-0-1-0, Nanstad 3-1-3-1, Manogue 3-1-2-2. — Totals — 39-6-13-6.
Jefferson (ab-r-h-rbi) — K. Lange 5-0-0-0, Thiede 2-3-1-0, R. Wagner 4-0-3-0, Folbrecht 5-0-1-1, Ristow 4-0-1-0, Doebereiner 4-0-1-0, Bi. Becker 3-0-0-0, Guttenberg 1-0-0-0, T. Baumann 3-0-0-0, B. Baumann 0-0-0-0. — Totals — 36-3-9-3.
HR — None. 3B — Laskowski. 2B — Eastman.
Pitching HO — Nanstad 9 in 9; B. Baumann 6 in 8, R. Wagner 1 in 1. ER — Nanstad 3; B. Baumann 4. SO — Nanstad 9; B. Baumann 2. BB — Nanstad 4; B. Baumann 1. W — Nanstad. L — B. Baumann.