By Mike Ramczyk
and Chris Bennett
UNION GROVE – After this week, the Southern Lakes Conference championship picture is crystal clear.
Waterford, the defending champion, has a formidable challenger in Burlington, and one of the schools is guaranteed to win the crown outright.
That’s because both the Wolverines and Demons took care of business Thursday night in their respective conference contests.
While Burlington earned an impressive sweep of Elkhorn, 13-8 and 14-3, at Beaumont Field, Waterford stole the show by winning its 14th straight game, a 23-7 shellacking of host Union Grove.
The Wolverines jumped out to a 9-1 lead, only to have the Broncos cut it to 11-5 after five innings.
Any semblance of a comeback was premature, as Waterford wore its hitting shoes in the top of the sixth inning.
With a fierce wind blowing out to left, three Wolverines made solid contact and watched the ball carry.
And carry. And carry over the fence.
Austin Werth started the 12-run onslaught with a moon shot, a ball that traveled at least 50 feet beyond the 291-foot sign, and well over the 20-foot high fence.
Michael Schmidt, the next batter, hit a solo shot for back-to-back jacks, and Nolan DeGreef, who relieved Ryan Jungbauer in the fifth to get out of a two-out jam, tore the lid off the scoreboard with one swing.
With the bases loaded, DeGreef, know more for his pitching, smacked the ball into the jet stream and it carried over the fence for a grand slam.
That made it 19-6, and the Wolverines were laughing and high-fiving an ecstatic DeGreef at home plate.
Austin Hoefs’ two-hitter sparked a 10-2 Waterford victory over Union Grove Wednesday. Jungbauer belted a grand slam in the game.
On Thursday, Nick Busalacchi added a home run. Tyler Terrian led Waterford with four hits, and Ryan Dietrich added three.
It’s been that kind of run the past month for Waterford, which notched its 14th straight victory and improved to 19-2 overall.
At 12-0 in the Southern Lakes Conference, the Wolverines can clinch a second consecutive SLC crown with a win Tuesday at home against Burlington (13-3, 11-1 SLC).
Waterford’s only losses came against Racine Horlick, a team that’s eliminated Burlington two straight seasons, and Milwaukee Lutheran, the No. 1-ranked team in the state in Division 2. Lutheran edged Waterford, 1-0.
Burlington’s three losses are by a combined three runs, a 3-2 extra-inning thriller against D1’s No. 5-ranked Kenosha Indian Trail, an 8-7 loss to Kenosha Bradford and a 3-2 loss at Westosha Central, a team Waterford swept.
Tuesday’s game will be at Waterford Union High School, with the baseball field on Highway 20.
Thursday’s game will be under the lights at 7 p.m. at Ginger Beaumont Field in Burlington. A large crowd is anticipated in what could be the winner-take-all conference championship.
Follow Sports Editor Mike Ramczyk on Twitter @mikeramczyk17 and SLN Racine County on Facebook for live video, tweets and more.
Nonconference doubleheader yields two wins
The Waterford Union High School baseball team beat Slinger in both games of a doubleheader May 7 at home and pushed their month-long winning streak to 12 games.
Waterford (14-2, 10-0 SLC) lost 4-1 April 15 in a non-conference game at home against Racine Horlick, and has not lost since.
The Wolverines beat Slinger 6-1 in the first game and 4-3 in the second. Waterford beat Delavan-Darien 19-4 May 6 in a SLC game at Delavan and beat Badger 14-7 at Lake Geneva May 5 and 6-1 May 3 at home.
Anthony Ray threw a complete game in the 6-1 victory against Slinger (3-13). Ray (7-1) allowed two hits and struck out six.
The Wolverines scored two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. Michael Schmidt drove in two runs.
In the 4-3 victory against Slinger Brandon Bojar and Nolan DeGreef limited the Owls to three hits.
The Wolverines scored two runs in the first and second innings. Tyler Terrian, Matt Wezyk and Chris Saltzmann each tallied two hits.
Ryan Jungbauer limited the Comets (5-11, 2-8 SLC) to four hits and improved to 4-0 in the victory at Delavan-Darien. The Wolverines finished with 17 hits. Matt Korman drove in four runs and Jungbauer drove in three.
“In the Lake Geneva game, we came back from being behind 7-6,” Waterford coach Lance Bestland said. “Korman hit a three-run home run in the top of the seventh to give us a 9-6 lead, and we then scored five runs with two outs.”
Waterford finished with eight runs in the top of the seventh in its 14-7 victory against Badger.
Jungbauer went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Schmidt went 2-for-5 with three runs scored and Terrian finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Korman drove in four runs.
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