By Bud Milroy
Sports Correspondent
For a young Catholic Central High School baseball team, winning three games in a row is a big deal – especially when they had only won four all season before then.
“It really means a lot to us because we’re so young,” said CCHS coach Tom O’Connell after the Hilltoppers traveled to Kenosha St. Joseph and won 7-3 on May 16, and then swept a doubleheader from Greendale Martin Lutheran on Saturday, 4-3 and 11-9.
Both of the Martin Luther games went extra innings.
In the win over St. Joe’s, Kross Krueger led the Hilltoppers (7-10 overall, 5-8 in the Metro Classic Conference). The sophomore overcame two errors in the first inning where the Lancers scored three runs and shut out the opposition the rest of the way.
He finished with four strikeouts and just one walk. He also had a bases-loaded single in the fifth inning to bring in the first CCHS run. Tegan Miles followed with a walk that forced in a run. In the sixth, CCHS erupted with five runs, with single RBIs going to Alex Wegge, Jacob Webley and Miles.
Miles bounced back from a couple of rough outings and hurled the ’Toppers to the game one win over Martin Luther. He went all eight innings with just two earned runs, 13 strikeouts and four walks.
“His curve ball was outstanding and he kept his fastball down in the zone,” O’Connell said.
The Hilltoppers scored a single run in the bottom of the third, but Martin Luther tied the score in its half of the fourth, then took the lead in the fifth. CCHS tied it up in the bottom of the frame.
Miles worked out of a jam in the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, Nolan Girard and Matt Heiligenthal each drew a walk to open the game. One out later, Webley sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Sobbe had a line-drive single for the game winner.
In the second game, CCHS rallied in the top of the eighth and held off the Spartans in the bottom half of the inning.
Austin Hayes started on the mound and went six and a third innings before running out of gas. Girard worked one and two-thirds innings in relief for the win.
Ben Heiligenthal and Zach Mehring drew walks to open the top of the eighth, and a wild pitch allowed Heiligenthal to score. A sacrifice fly by Girard scored Mehring. Matt Heiligenthal walked and an error brought in a third run.
Martin Luther scored a pair in the bottom half of the inning, but a fly out to Webley in center field ended the game.
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