ROSHOLT STYMIES GREENWOOD IN WIAA DIVISION 4 STATE BASEBALL SEMIFINAL
By Paul Lecker
Zaleski Sports
APPLETON – Greenwood entered the 2021 WIAA State Baseball Tournament red hot.
After starting the season 4-6, the Indians had ripped off 13 wins in a row, scoring at least six runs in each contest and reaching double digits in runs nine times.
Enter Rosholt pitcher Isaac Cychosz. The Central Wisconsin Conference South Division Player of the Year was dominant on the mound, striking out 12, and the Hornets managed enough offense early to take down Greenwood 6-1 in a Division 4 state semifinal on Monday afternoon at Fox Cities Stadium.
Rosholt (21-4) lost in the D-4 championship game to Boyceville (21-1), 4-0, later on Monday as it managed just one hit against Boyceville pitcher Walker Retz. The state title is Boyceville’s first.
Cychosz faced the minimum through six innings as he picked off two runners that reached in the third and fourth innings, and was the beneficiary of a base-running mistake that led to a double play in the sixth. He allowed just three hits and two walks in the complete-game effort.
“We couldn’t get it going,” Greenwood coach Kent Hinker said. “Every kid was swinging under the ball. It’s just was one of those things. They (Rosholt) just hit the ball better than we did, but with some of the those plays (defensively), we would have been in that game. He (Cychosz) pitched well, we just couldn’t find it.”
Sam Trzebiatowski had an RBI single to score Cychosz in the first inning, and the Hornets plated four more in the second.
Brock Lyschik led off with a double, Nathan Kropidlowski singled after a strikeout, and Lyshik scored on a low throw to the plate that got by the Greenwood catcher.
Tyler Hintz followed with an infield single and Blake Niewiadomski followed with a long single off the left field wall. The runner on first had to hold, keeping Niewiadomski to a single, but two runs scored and Rosholt led 4-0.
Nathan Lemanczyk added a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0, and Cychosz did the rest on the mound.
Rosholt made it 6-0 with the help of two Greenwood errors in the fifth.
The Indians managed their only run in the seventh. Xander Hinker led off with a walk, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on a double by Cooper Bredlau. Cychosz quickly ended the rally with two more strikeouts to send Rosholt to the championship game.
Greenwood’s five errors led to a pair of unearned runs and extended three different innings, limiting starting pitcher Sully Whitford’s outing to four innings.
Defensive issues were something Greenwood suffered from early in the season, a product of its uneven start. Kent Hinker said the team had put those problems behind them, which helped fuel the big winning streak, but it came back to bite them at the state tournament.
“Those errors that happened today, we eliminated those from earlier in the year midway through the season,” the Greenwood coach said. “We batted better too, of course, but their kid through a heck of a game and it is what it is.”
Greenwood finishes the season with a 17-7 and reached the state tournament for the sixth time in program history. Greenwood won Class C state titles in 1988 and 1990, and a Division 4 state championship in 2013. The Indians also competed in the 1986 and 2012 state tournaments.
Hornets 6, Indians 1
Greenwood 000 000 1 - 1 3 5
Rosholt 140 010 x - 6 10 0
WP: Isaac Cychosz. LP: Sully Whitford.
SO: Whitford (4 inn.) 3, Cooper Bredlau (2 inn.) 3; Cychosz 12. BB: Whitford 3, C. Bredlau 0; Cychosz 2.
Top hitters: G, Xander HInker 1x2, run; C. Bredlau 1x3, 2B, RBI. R, Cychosz 1x3, 2 runs; Blake Niewiadomski 1x3, 2 RBIs; Sam Trzebiatowski 2x4, RBI; Brock Lyshik 3x3, 2B, 2 runs.
Records: Greenwood 17-7; Rosholt 21-3.