Great escape helps baseball Cards advance
Siegfried & Roy are legendary magicians best known for their spectacular stage shows.
Penn & Teller, whose illusions are world renowned, are equally famous.
Those fabled acts had nothing on the duo of Brody Kalscheuer and Jackson Guerrero, though, on June 4.
Kalscheuer, a junior pitcher for Middleton, and Guerrero, the Cardinals’ senior shortstop, helped MHS pull off a Houdini-act for the ages. And that magical escape job allowed Middleton to edge visiting Holmen, 3-2, in a WIAA Division 1 regional final.
“It was incredible,” Middleton manager Brent Jorgensen said of the Cardinals’ great escape.
Middleton improved to 19-7 and advanced to Tuesday’s sectional semifinals against Madison Memorial at Sun Prairie West at 10 a.m. The other sectional semifinal features Verona and Sun Prairie East at 1 p.m., and the two winners meet at 4 p.m. for a trip to state.
Holmen finished the year 17-8.
“I'm so happy to play baseball another day,” Kalscheuer said. “That's all we're doing here, we're just trying to go as far as we can.”
The Cardinals’ hopes of advancing were in serious trouble in the sixth inning, though.
Middleton, the fourth-seed in the sectional, was clinging to a 3-2 lead when fifth-seeded Holmen put runners on second and third with nobody out. According to Sabermetrics, the odds of the Vikings scoring at least one run in that situation were 92%, and the average number of runs expected was at least 1.9.
Thanks to Kalscheuer and Guerrero, the Vikings left with a goose egg.
“You gotta find a way,” said Kalscheuer, the Cardinals’ bulldog. “It’s just one pitch at a time, one batter at a time. And the boys helped me get through it.”
Guerrero certainly did his part.
First, cleanup hitter Mason Flury hit a shallow fly to left that Guerrero was able to run down — roughly 30 feet behind the third base bag — for the first out. Middleton left fielder Eytan D’Onofrio couldn't get there, and the ball was in fair territory, so Guerrero’s unique range was vital in preventing what could have been a huge inning for Holmen.
“I thought he was going to get there,” Guerrero said of D’Onofrio. “He usually calls me off on those, but he couldn't get there. I didn't hear him anywhere, so I just kept running after it out there.”
Holmen’s Joe Meeter, a North Dakota State recruit with good speed, was the Vikings’ runner at third base. Guerrero’s momentum was carrying him towards the fence down the left field line, so Holmen had to be tempted to have Meeter tag and try to score.
Instead, Guerrero quickly turned, pivoted and threw home. Guerrero’s throw didn't have its usual gusto, but after tagging and taking three steps towards home, Meeter stopped and retreated to third.
“Unbelievable play,” Jorgensen said of Guerrero’s gem. “There's only a handful of guys in the state that make that play. To go on the run, cover all that ground, make that catch, and then turn around and throw home … that’s pretty incredible.”
Holmen catcher Noah Carlson followed with a one-hopper to Guerrero at short. This time, Meeter was running on contact.
Guerrero threw a perfect strike home, catcher Brad Koeller was waiting for Meeter, then got down the tag and held onto the ball for the second out of the inning.
“I saw it was an outside pitch,” Guerrero said. “They usually don't hit those as hard and it bounced like straight to my chest. Just had to make a nice easy throw because he took off right away at third and Brad (Koeller) did a great job.”
Kalscheuer then finished the escape with a little help from assistant coach Jared Haack.
Holmen still had runners on the corners, and brought pinch runner Alex Goryl in to run for Carlson at first.
Kalscheuer has one of the better pickoff moves towards first base in the area. This time, though, Haack sent in a sign for Kalscheuer to fake a pickoff attempt to third, then throw back to first.
The play worked better than any magician’s trick.
When Kalscheuer faked his throw to third, Goryl strayed a good 15-feet from first base. Kalscheuer did a 180, and fired to first baseman Joey Passaglia who tagged Goryl for the third out of the inning.
“I was planning on going with my regular pick off move to first,” Kalscheuer said. “But Coach Haack hit me with the third-to-first move, and it couldn't have worked out any better. (Goryl) probably wouldn't have gone that far had I not faked to third. Coach Haack's input came in to save my butt.”
Jorgensen agreed.
“Kudos to Coach Haack,” Jorgensen said. “He kind of had a feel for it, and made a really good call, which obviously worked out. Good on Brody for executing it, but nice job by Coach Haack for calling it and the guys for executing it.”
Middleton’s thrilling sixth inning escape capped a night in which Kalscheuer overcame some early trouble and threw a gem.
Kalscheuer allowed two first inning runs, but settled in and kept the Vikings scoreless the rest of the night. Holmen had just two hits in the final four innings, and Kalscheuer finished with a six hitter, struck out four and walked just one.
“I feel like that's probably his best game,” Guerrero said of Kalscheuer. “I mean, maybe not the first inning, but he bounced back from there and was really, really good.”
Kalscheuer mixed three pitches throughout and threw strikes on 63 of his 91 pitches (69.2%). In the top of the seventh, Holmen got a two-out single from No. 8 hitter Landon Kelly and Jorgensen decided that no matter what happened next, Kalscheuer was down to his final batter.
“They were about to get back to the top of the lineup and I didn't want Brody facing those guys for a fourth time,” Jorgensen said.
Kalscheuer didn't have to.
Holmen called on pinch hitter Chris Holmes to try keeping its season alive. Instead, Kalscheuer got ahead of Holmes, 1-2, then struck him out swinging to end things.
“I felt like I was grooving, man,” Kalscheuer said. “I don't know how to explain it. It’s just playoff baseball. It's a surreal feeling. You truly got to be there to feel it.
“I just prayed, I kept my head straight, and I tried to work through everything as much as possible. The good Lord takes me to where I am now. The good Lord's got me.”
Jorgensen was equally thrilled with Kalscheuer’s night.
“He competed his butt off,” Jorgensen said of Kalscheuer. “He was right around the zone with all three of his pitches, mixed his looks, kept their guys close. They’ve got some guys that can really run, and he did a really good job keeping their base runners close and making sure they couldn't steal and take extra bases. So it was a very impressive performance.”
Kalscheuer had to overcome a rough first inning, though, in which he gave up a one-out home run to Meeter that was crushed to right field into a stiff wind. Shortstop Nolan Marshak followed with a triple to right and scored on a sacrifice fly from Flury as Holmen raced to a 2-0 lead.
“One mistake pitch,” Kalscheuer said of the home run to Meeter. “I feel like the triple from the (No.) 3 hitter was just a good piece of hitting. I didn't feel like I missed my spot. I feel like he placed a good swing on the ball. Overall, though, I felt confident with what I had today.”
Middleton answered back with a three-run second that gave it the lead for good.
Catcher Brad Koeller and designated hitter Teddy Kalscheur led off the frame with walks, then both runners moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Bryce Esser. Right fielder August Faessler reached on a catcher’s interference to load the bases, then D’Onofrio ripped a an 0-2 pitch to left that scored pinch runner Tristiano Feyrer and Kalscheur.
“Oh man, that was huge,” Jorgensen said of D’Onofrio’s hit. “And to do it on 0-2. I mean, obviously, it just takes one swing, but he's been very good with two strikes and it's been huge for us.”
After a wild pitch moved Faessler and D’Onofrio up a base, center fielder Chase Rogers drove a ball to deep center that brought Faessler home and gave Middleton a 3-2 lead.
“Overall, we didn't hit very well,” said Jorgensen, whose team finished with just three hits. “But we worked some walks, we got hit by a pitch, we executed bunts well. We did a good job in that regard, just clutching up when we needed it most.”
Meantime, Kalscheuer settled in, allowing just one hit between the third and fifth innings. And when Holmen’s Kelly reached second on an error to open the fifth, Kalscheuer promptly picked him off.
Kalscheuer, Guerrero & Co. worked out of the sticky sixth inning, then Kalscheuer finished things off in the seventh.
“Amazing,” Guerrero said.
“Just a really fun night,” Kalscheuer said.
Jorgensen felt the same.
“Just all around, we really didn't play that great,” said Jorgensen, whose team had three errors. “But I mean, we did enough to win, and we came up big in key situations. We played well when we needed to.
“You'd like to see something a little bit more clean, but at the same point you get a win to go to sectionals, you did enough to win, you’re really happy. So to not play your best baseball and still find a way is very encouraging.”
Especially when you’ve got a couple of magicians on your team.
• Middleton 6, Sparta 1 — Joey Passaglia threw a complete game, four hitter and lifted the fourth-seeded Cardinals past the 13th-seeded Spartans in a regional semifinal on June 2.
Passaglia struck out six, walked three and allowed just one run. He also threw strikes on 70 of 105 pitches (66.7%).
Chase Rogers had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored, while Bryce Esser drove in two runs. Jackson Guerrero and Tyler Vogt both had RBIs and scored a run, while Brad Koeller and Joey Passaglia each had RBIs.
Middleton took a 4-0 lead in the first inning when it had four hits and a hit batter. Rogers led off the frame with a single, Koeller was hit by a pitch and Guerrero had a bunt single to load the bases.
Vogt followed with a single to score Rogers, and Passaglia had an RBI groundout that gave Middleton a 2-0 lead. Esser then laid down a bunt that scored both Vogt and Guerrero to make it 4-0.
Sparta’s lone run came in the fourth, but Middleton answered with solo runs in the bottom of the fouth and another in the sixth as its lead grew to 6-1.
That was more than enough support for Passaglia, who didn’t allow a hit the final two innings and led Middleton into the regional finals.
