By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
UNION GROVE – The Union Grove baseball team’s bench was confident to say the least.
Kicking empty buckets, shouting rally chants and generally loving the fact their team was in a 2-2 dogfight with the area’s best team, rival Waterford, Thursday evening.
The jovial Broncos quickly turned silent in the seventh inning thanks to the same team play that had the visiting Wolverines ranked sixth in the state in Division 1 and a lock to win the Southern Lakes Conference.
A couple walks, a Trace Hunsucker sacrifice, and another walk, and Waterford loaded the bases with two outs in a tie game. Then, Tyler Terrian came up huge.
He bounced a chopper deep in the hole between third and shortstop, beat out the throw, and Chris Saltzmann waltzed home for the go-ahead run.
The 3-2 victory was the eighth overall win for the red-hot Wolverines.
Ryan Borchardt, who relieved starter Tony Ray in the sixth and got out of a bases-loaded jam, shut down the Broncos in the seventh.
Blake Hansen reached on a leadoff infield single, but the Broncos went down quietly to end the game. Hansen moved to second with two outs, but a ground ball to shortstop ended the game.
Waterford improved to 16-2 overall and 10-1 in the SLC. The Wolverines sit 1.5 games ahead of Westosha Central, the only league team to beat Waterford this spring.
Union Grove dropped to 9-9 and 5-6.
“Ray pitched a great game,” said Waterford coach Lance Bestland.
Ray, the team’s No. 2 starter, would be the staff ace for most clubs. He went 5 2/3 strong, allowing only four hits and two runs.
Terrian, Michael Schmidt and Matt Wezyk provided two hits each, and Borchardt only gave up one hits in 1 1/3 of stellar relief work. Borchardt earned the victory and is now 2-0.
Waterford travels to Lake Geneva Badger (8-9, 7-4) today at 4:30 p.m.
The Broncos were stymied with only five hits. Connor Fedders, Mason Rodriquez, Hansen, Nate Schimanski and Jake Schwark tallied base knocks.
Starting pitcher Schimanski lasted five solid frames, allowing one earned run and scattering six hits. Schwark surrendered two hits and a run in relief.
Union Grove hosts county foe Racine Case Monday and wraps up SLC play with its final series against Wilmot next week. The Panthers will visit the Grove Tuesday, and the Broncos head to Kenosha County Thursday.
Pick up today’s Westine Report for more sports news from Union Grove, and grab the Waterford Post for more Wolverines sports.
Wolverines capture seventh straight win
By Chris Bennett
Sports Correspondent
If the rest of the state doesn’t know about Waterford senior pitcher Dylan Malecki, it may want to take a trip to Wolverine Land for a pure treat.
The fireballer picked up his eighth win Tuesday night in as many tries as the Wolverines doubled up rival Union Grove, 6-3.
Ryan Jungbauer went 3-for-3, and Matt Wezyk added two hits and two RBIs, and the Wolverines collected eight total hits.
Waterford scored three runs in the first inning and held on from there.
The Broncos cut the lead to 3-2 in the fourth, but Waterford answered with two runs in the fourth and one more insurance tally later in the game.
With the win, Waterford improved to 15-2 overall and 9-1 atop the Southern Lakes, one game ahead of Westosha Central, which split with the Wolverines.
Malecki was dynamite and scattered seven hits for another quality start.
Streak continues
The Waterford High School baseball team extended its winning streak to seven games Monday with a 10-1 non-conference victory at home against East Troy.
The Wolverines (15-2, 8-1 Southern Lakes Conference) played Tuesday at home against Union Grove and Thursday at Union Grove in SLC games. Waterford plays today at Badger in a SLC contest.
Tony Ray improved to 4-1 with the victory against East Troy as part of a trio that each threw two innings against the Trojans. Ryan Borchardt and Brandon Bojar also pitched.
Waterford scored a run in the first, another two in the third and one each in fourth and fifth before putting the game out of reach with a five-run sixth.
Waterford finished with eight hits. Ryan Kiedrowski and Tyler Terrian each tallied two. Kiedrowski drove in two runs.
The Wolverines broke a 2-2 tie with a three-run fifth inning against Badger, and overcame two errors in the win.
Waterford finished with just six hits. Michael Schmidt finished with two hits and Kiedrowski drove in two runs.
Dylan Malecki pitched six innings and struck out five, and improved to 7-0 with the victory.
Waterford is 8-1 in the SLC, and holds a one and a half game lead over second place Westosha Central with five games left in conference play.
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