The Bay Port Pirates are back in the W.I.A.A. State Baseball championship game for the second year in a row after avenging last year’s 11-2 title game loss at the hands of Sun Prairie. The 8th seeded Pirates knocked off the defending champs and number one seeded Cardinals Tuesday morning in the Division 1 quarterfinals 4-2. Sun Prairie scored first on a steal of home in the opening inning. The Pirates answered in the second with a two out, run scoring double from Connor LaBar. Bay Port added two more in the second on a steal of home of their own and an RBI single from Cole Benson. John Nickel’s RBI single in the 5th built the lead to 4-1. Benson also started on the mound and covered 6 and a third innings, allowing the one run on 4 hits. Sun Prairie tried to rally, scoring on a wild pitch but Ethan Plog got a strikeout to finish the victory.
In the semifinals Tuesday night, the Pirates knocked off 5th seeded Menomonee Falls 4-3. Falls advanced with a 6-1 victory over Westosha Central earlier in the day. Bay Port picked up an unearned run in the first and Nickel’s RBI double in the second made it 2-0. A pair of sacrifice flies built the lead to 4-0 in the 4th. Falls scored twice in the bottom of the 5th, which finished the day for starter Craig Kabat who gave up two runs on four hits. Once again, Plog finished the game out of the bullpen, allowing one run in the bottom of the seventh but left the tying run on third.
Bay Port will face Milton in the D1 championship game. Milton opened with an 8-3 win over Arrowhead. Greendale, the 7 seed upset number 2 Eau Claire North 6-4 in 8 innings in the last quarterfinal but Milton was too much for Greendale, winning their semifinal game 8-2.
Bay Port will play in it’s 5th state championship game since 2009 when they won the first of two straight titles. It’s scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.
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