Post 191 pulls away from Holmen late

Seven runs in the seventh inning helped Whitehall’s Hutchins-Stendahl Post 191 American Legion baseball team pull away from the Holmen 17U team, 14-2, on Saturday.

Whitehall took the lead with three runs in the top of the third inning, it added two in the fourth and one in the sixth before breaking the game open with seven in the seventh.

The win was Post 191’s second of the season, improving their record to 2-7. They’re 1-5 in Coulee Region American Legion Baseball League play, ahead of Black River Falls (0-5) and Sparta (0-6). Sparta was supposed to play in Whitehall last Thursday, but the game was postponed. 

The last games on Whitehall’s regular season schedule came on Tuesday of this week as they played a doubleheader in Arcadia. They will head to Osseo for regional competition next Friday with their first game of the double-elimination tournament to be played against Arcadia. 

Whitehall 14 Holmen 2

After Holmen scored one run to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second, it was all Whitehall.

Devon McCune walked to lead off the top of the third inning and later came around to score the tying run. Brock Sluga singled and scored the go-ahead run and Bryce Schorbahn walked and later scored to put Whitehall ahead 4-2. 

Post 191 added two more runs in the fourth as McCune doubled with one out and later scored as Sluga added a single later in the inning. Brayden Lisowski singled and scored in the sixth inning to put Whitehall ahead 7-2.

Any hopes Holmen had of coming back in the game were gone after Whitehall’s at-bat in the seventh. Post 191 had six hits in the inning, including a three-run home run by Sluga that came after McCune singled and Lisowski doubled. 

Sluga went five-for-five at the plate while McCune, Lisowski and Schorbahn all had two hits and Whitehall totaled 14. 

After giving up two runs on five hits in the first two innings, McCune settled in on the mound. He retired 12 of the 14 batters he faced in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings – allowing just one hit, while the other batter reached on an error. McCune struck out four batters in the game, while allowing six hits and two walks in the win. 

Lisowski pitched the seventh, striking out one while allowing two walks.