Cardinals grounded by Bulldogs in sectional final

While Ithaca celebrated with a sectional championship plaque, Eleva-Strum coach CJ Christianson had a message for his team.

“I told the guys ‘we have nothing to hang our heads about. (We won) our first conference championship in 46 years, it’s been 20-plus years for a regional final. We were a game away, we gave ourselves every opportunity,’” Christianson told the Times after meeting with his team. “Remember how this feels for us and what it looked like for Ithaca grabbing that plaque… the work starts tomorrow.”

After putting up 12 runs in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Four Blair-Taylor Sectional Semifinal earlier that day, the Cardinals (24-2) struggled to get going in a 6-2 loss against Ithaca (19-7). 

The Bulldogs, though, came out swinging.

Lincoln Manning legged out an infield single on the first pitch of the game and Matthew Kepler sent the second pitch through the infield. Sammy Clary took one pitch, but put the second of his at-bat — and fourth in the game — in left field for a single that put Ithaca ahead 1-0. 

“Ithaca is a great team, they hit the crap out of the ball all game long,” Christianson said. 

E-S’ Carter Gunderson seemed to stop the bleeding when he struck out Micah Salisbury; but the third strike got past catcher Hank Munson and Salisbury sprinted to first, loading the bases with no outs. Gunderson then walked Logan Anderson, bringing home a run.

The E-S junior pitched himself out of the jam, however, striking out the next three batters. 

The second inning would bring more of the same. After a strikeout to start the second, Manning singled and Kepler walked. Christianson saw enough, replacing Gunderson on the mound with Jake Bjerke. 

Bjerke hit the first batter he saw to load the bases. Salisbury hit into a fielder’s choice, bringing in a run to make the score 3-0. Anderson then bounced an offering high off of the turf in front of the plate. By the time the ball came down, the Cardinals didn’t have a play to make as a run scored and Anderson was already on first. 

Another hit batter loaded the bases again, but Bjerke got a strikeout to get out of the inning.

Bjerke’s time on the mound wouldn’t last long. He walked the first batter of the third inning before looking to the dugout while grabbing his back. He exited the game and was replaced by George Munson. Bjerke later re-entered, playing first base. 

Munson seemed to settle the team down, the third was the first inning in which E-S didn’t allow a run. He gave up three straight singles, including one that went off the fence in the fourth as Ithaca scored one run. They had the bases loaded with two outs, but Munson struck out Hewsten Garcia-Boland to get out of the inning.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth, but Munson got out of the jam with only one run —on a squeeze play — allowed. 

“(Munson) did great, some weird circumstances with some guys getting a little dinged up, getting hit around and trying to go around our catcher, who was banged up all game,” Christianson said. “George came in and threw great… I can’t fault him for anything he did on the mound today.”

While their pitching and defense allowed six runs, the Cardinals were mostly silent at the plate. 

Gunderson singled to lead off the bottom of the first, but was stranded on first. Hank Munson doubled down the line in the second, but his courtesy runner – Brody Hanson – was tagged out on a double play. The team went down in order in the third and fourth innings.

It wasn’t until the fifth that the Cardinals got going, but it wasn’t enough.

After Hank Munson’s line drive was caught in center field for the first out of the inning, his brother, George, singled to left. Marcus Steffenson struck out for the second out of the inning, but Ty Fjelstad singled to bring home the first E-S run. Two batters later, Gunderson singled in another run and moved to second on a throw to third. That gave E-S two runners in scoring position with the heart of their order coming up while facing a four-run deficit. 

That’s as close as they’d get. The inning ended when Justin Becker flew out to right field. 

“It took is a little bit to get going with the sticks,” Christianson said. “We got a couple of runs, but it wasn’t enough.” 

After Munson retired the side in the top of the sixth, the Cardinals’ third, fourth and fifth batters — Tyler Webb, Bjerke and Hank Munson — went down in order in the bottom half of the inning. 

Munson again retired Ithaca in order in the top of the seventh. Again, the Cardinals couldn’t threaten as Munson popped up before Steffenson flew out to right field and Fjelstad grounded out to end the game. 

While the season didn’t end the way E-S dreamed it was a considerable step up from where the program had been. Their 24 wins were more than they had in the previous three seasons combined. It was just the third time since 2000 that the team had a winning record. E-S moved from summer to spring baseball along with the rest of the Dairyland Conference in 2011, but didn’t field a team in either the 2011 or 2012 seasons. They didn’t win a game in the spring season until 2015. 

Cardinals score often in sectional semifinal win over Pittsville

By Benjamin Pierce

Times Staff

The Eleva-Strum High School baseball team scored early and often in their sectional semifinal playoff game last Tuesday to help them to the sectional championship game later that afternoon.

The top-seeded Cardinals (24-2 this season) found plenty of offense against second-seeded Pittsville (23-6) to take the 12-3 playoff win at Blair-Taylor High School.

Ithaca, the fourth seed in the other half of the sectional, upset Eleva-Strum in the sectional final by 6-2 (see story elsewhere in sports).

E-S 12 Pittsville 3

Eleva-Strum built a 3-0 lead through three innings on Tuesday with the help of an RBI single from Ty Fjelstad that opened the scoring in the bottom of the second.

Junior Justin Becker doubled the Cardinals’ lead with a sacrifice bunt in the third inning and led Eleva-Strum on offense on Tuesday — Becker finished with a trio of hits and drove in five runs.

Pittsville got one run back in the top of the fourth inning before Eleva-Strum responded with a dynamic performance in the bottom half of the inning to take a 7-1 lead.

The Cardinals put the finishing touches on the playoff win by scoring four more times in the fifth inning.

Marcus Steffenson scored to open Eleva-Strum’s trip to the plate, and Becker brought in teammates Carter Gunderson and Alex Anderson before making his own way home.

Fjelstad rounded out the Cardinals’ scoring in the sixth inning and finished with two hits.

Tyler Webb got the start and the win for Eleva-Strum, throwing four strikeouts.