Arcadia wraps up summer at legion softball state tournament

Unlike last year in their state debut, the Arcadia Post 17 American Legion softball team could not navigate their way to the championship round. However, the defending state runner-up still acquitted themselves well, winning two games and suffering losses only to the top two teams in their division.

Arcadia went 2-2 overall and came one win away from advancing to the final day of play at this year’s Wisconsin Legion Softball State Tournament, held from this past Friday to Sunday in Merrill. Post 17 was part of the Division 2 field playing in a double-elimination format.

Arcadia earned wins over Fennimore and Wittenberg-Birnamwood (the latter in walk-off fashion) during their weekend in Merrill. Their two losses came to Fall Creek (the D2 state champion) and Marathon (the state runner-up).

Tatum Drazkowski and Layna Wozey were both named to the all-state tournament team for fourth-place Post 17.

Arcadia 11 Fennimore 6

Tatum Drazkowski finished just a single shy of the cycle to help power Post 17 to an impressive win over Fennimore to kick off their stint at state last Friday.

After falling behind 2-0 early, Arcadia surged ahead with back-to-back four-run rallies in the third and fourth innings. In the bottom of the third, Drazkowski hit an RBI double, Layna Wozney followed two batters later with a two-run double and Kaitlyn Bremer capped it off with an RBI triple.

The next inning’s rally was fueled by a Drazkowski RBI triple, a Wozney RBI double and run-scoring singles courtesy of Riley Walters and Amaya Schlesser. Though Fennimore whittled the deficit down to 8-6, Post 17 put them away with a final three-run spurt in the sixth that was started by Drazkowski’s leadoff home run to left.

Drazkowski led the charge by going 3 for 4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Wozney also went 3 for 4 with a trio of RBIs while Kiley Fitzpatrick, Bremer and Walters each collected a pair of hits.

Fall Creek 11 Arcadia 6

In their second game of Friday’s state slate, Arcadia was unable to keep pace with the eventual state champions. The Crickets would finish 4-0 over the weekend to capture the D2 state title for a third consecutive year.

Fitzpatrick’s two-run triple with two outs in the bottom of the first gave Post 17 the early advantage, but Fall Creek eventually jumped ahead and pulled away as the game wore on. Fitzpatrick and Wozney each recorded a pair of hits for Arcadia in the loss.

Arcadia 4 W-B 3

It took dramatics in both the seventh and eighth innings to make it happen, but Arcadia kept its season alive with an extra-inning victory over Wittenberg-Birnamwood this past Saturday.

Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Post 17 knotted the score when Sacia Boland scored on a wild pitch. Again down by one in the bottom of the seventh, Arcadia came up clutch again thanks to a Layna Wozney triple followed by Kaitlyn Bremer’s RBI single to tie the game and force extras.

After Wozney escaped a major jam by allowing no runs despite Wittenberg-Birnamwood loading the bases with no outs in the top of the eighth, the stage was set for a walk-off win. Arcadia’s Chloe Schlosstein hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a groundout and then came around to score the winning run on a walk-off single.

Wozney led the way for Post 17 by going 3 for 4 at the plate.

Marathon 12 Arcadia 2

One massive Marathon rally brought a sudden end to Arcadia’s summer on the softball diamond last Saturday in Merrill.

Post 17 scored its two runs on Amaya Schlesser’s RBI groundout in the top of the first and Wozney’s two-out RBI single in the fifth, and they only trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the sixth. However, Marathon poured it on in that sixth inning with a nine-run onslaught that brought the mercy rule into effect and ended Arcadia’s season.

Riley Walters went 2 for 3 at the plate for Post 17.