Sports

You’ve got a Friend in me: Slugger’s bomb lifts Barons to championship series

by Ed Nadolski Views: 10

Richter, Stahulak combine for solid pitching outing

Burlington Barons first baseman Nolan Friend smacked a walk-off home run Aug. 20 to propel the Barons to the Land O' Lakes Grand Championship. (Mike Ramczyk/SLN)
Burlington Barons first baseman Nolan Friend smacked a walk-off home run Aug. 20 to propel the Barons to the Land O’ Lakes Grand Championship. (Mike Ramczyk/SLN)

 

By Mike Ramczyk

Sports Editor

[email protected]

It doesn’t get much better than the Burlington-Waterford rivalry.

Across the board, in all sports, at all levels, athletes live mere miles apart, toeing school district lines and playing sports against each other from an early age.

Toss in a playoff atmosphere, extra innings and a walk-off home run, and you have electricity overload.

On Sunday at Ginger Beaumont Field in downtown Burlington, the Waterford Rivermen forced extra innings, only to fall to the Burlington Rotary Barons, 5-4, in stunning fashion.

It was the Land O’Lakes baseball playoffs, and the Barons needed a little extra after two Burlington errors allowed two Rivermen runs to tie things at 4-4 in the ninth.

Things stayed knotted until the bottom of the 11th, when player/manager Ryan Hoffman reached on an error and was replaced by pinch runner Colton Andresen, a 2013 Lake Geneva Badger graduate.

After batter Nolan Friend fouled off two bunt attempts, Andresen was caught stealing at second base.

On a full count, Friend drove the ball over the right-center field fence.

The walk-off smash propelled Burlington to this weekend’s LOL Grand Championship Series, a three-game event against fourth-seeded East Troy.

Travis Stahulak earned the victory with six innings in relief.

Karl Richter tossed five scoreless innings Sunday. (Mike Ramczyk/SLN)
Karl Richter tossed five scoreless innings Sunday. (Mike Ramczyk/SLN)

Karl Richter started for the Barons and pitched five shutout innings.

Ben Folger took the loss for Waterford.

Colton Tisch, Mac Shepherd, Paul Archambault and Taylor Meseberg all had two hits, as the Barons totaled 12.

Cal Tully, Dylan Friend and Stahulak each added a hit.

Archambault and Shepherd each wrapped two doubles.

Burlington is the No. 2 seed.

The Express earned its spot in the championship thanks to an 8-3 upset win over No. 1 New Berlin Monday night.

Burlington and East Troy split their two-game series during the regular season.

Burlington travels to East Troy Saturday, followed by Game 2 Sunday in Burlington.

If the teams split, the winner-take-all game will be played roughly an hour after game two.

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