G-E-T sweeps Tigers, misses out on Coulee title share

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau baseball team did what they needed to do in the last week of Coulee play to possibly nab a share of a conference title. Unfortunately for the Red Hawks, they did not get the assist from Viroqua they needed.

G-E-T (14-8, 9-3 Coulee) swept Black River Falls (9-10, 4-7) last week to wrap up conference play. Since the Red Hawks found themselves a game back of Westby going into the week, they needed the Norsemen to lose at least one of their two games against Viroqua in order to clinch a share of the Coulee crown.

Instead, Westby (21-5, 10-2) defeated the Blackhawks (12-9, 7-5) 3-1 on the road last Monday and 3-0 at home last Thursday to secure the Coulee championship outright.

In this year’s WIAA Division 2 playoff field, the Red Hawks are a No. 7 seed and will host No. 10 seed West Salem in the opening round on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The winner advances to the regional semifinals to play No. 2 seed Prescott on the road next Tuesday.

G-E-T 4 BRF 0

Black River Falls hitters had absolutely no answer for Caiden Brady, who tossed a complete-game shutout last Monday in Galesville.

Brady allowed only three hits and two walks in his seven innings of work, striking out 11 Tigers along the way.

Sam De Jager gave Brady all the run support he was going to need with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, but the Red Hawks added three more runs for good measure in the fifth with a rally that included Brady himself smacking a two-run single.

De Jager finished the game 2 for 4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored.

G-E-T 10 BRF 4

There was a lot more scoring in the rematch between the Red Hawks and the Tigers this past Thursday in Black River Falls, but the end result was still a G-E-T victory.

The Red Hawks seized a lead they never relinquished with a six-run explosion in the top of the first that featured Adain Busch’s two-run single and a Wyatt Oines double that cleared the bases when they were loaded.

From that point, G-E-T scattered four more runs across four different innings, capped off by Nathan Holthaus blasting a leadoff home run to left to start the sixth. Holthaus finished 2 for 3 with his homer, a walk and two runs while Jackson Burns went 2 for 5 with a double.