Eau Claire North, Amery, and Eau Claire Regis are advancing to the WIAA state baseball tournament in Appleton after posting sectional wins this past Tuesday.

In division 1 Eau Claire North defeated Hudson 5-1 in the sectional semi-final game. North got a dominant pitching performance by their ace Phil Isaksson who only allowed 2 hits in 7 innings of work.

In the sectional final North was down 6-2 to D.C. Everest going into the bottom of the 7th inning but got 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th to win it 7-6. North scored the winning run on a suicide sqeeze bunt. The Huskies will face Wisconsin Lutheran on June 12th at 10am.

In division 2 Amery defeated Barron 1-0 despite not getting a single hit. Amery scored it's lone run on a sacrifice fly by Matt Mullendore off of Golden Bears pitcher Brad Hallberg. Mullendore not only got the RBI but he got the win as well in his masterful 1 hit shutout. In the sectional final Amery blasted Medford 11-1 in 6 innings. Mitch Thompson hit a 3 run HR for the Warriors who will face Waupun on June 13th at 8pm.

West Wisconsin Sports recently talked to Amery assistant baseball coach Justin Luehman about the sectional wins, the trip home and about their state semifinal game against Waupun.

 

WWS: As a member of the coaching staff how does it feel to be going to state with the kids?

Coach Luehman: It definately feels really good to have a team going to state.  I'm especially happy for the players and our head coach, Matt Petterson, because of all the time he has put into the program.  I coached the current juniors and seniors when they were in 7th grade, then again on JV and Varsity over a six-year span.  Coach Petterson coached them in 8th grade and then again on Varsity, so we have both put a lot of time into this group.  It's also nice for the other coaches who have helped out along the way with the summer legion team and the JV team.  I think Matt Humpal and Todd Schulte both spent three seasons coaching the summer legion team; so we are basically a close-knit baseball family and it feels great to see all the time and effort from the players and coaches pay off.
WWS:  Was the close sectional semi-final game against Barron as intense and nerve-wracking as it seemed to be on the radio?

Coach Luehman:The Barron game was certainly intense, but with Matt Mullendore on the mound it is easy to stay relatively calm.  I could not believe that we were winning without having a hit, but Mullendore has been a big-game pitcher since he was a sophomore, so I knew we were in good hands.  As odd as it may sound, I was actually more nervous during the Medford game.  I tend to get more nervous when we have large leads against good teams rather than the smaller leads.  I guess I just cannot believe we would 10-run such a good team, so I was nervous Medford was going to get the bats going.

WWS:   Do you guys think you'll be able to get any video tape on Waupun to look at before the state tournament?

Coach Luehman: I doubt we will be able to get Waupun tape because I cannot think of any connections we have to that part of the state.  That is fine, though, because at this point all the teams are obviously very good.  We just need to play mistake-free baseball and we should be fine.

WWS:  How was the ride home from Cumberland?

Coach Luehman: It was the best bus ride I have had as a coach.  The kids were celebrating the entire drive home.  As we were driving through Amery some of the people on the street would wave at the bus and a few passing cars honked their horns.  The kids made sure everyone on the street knew they were going to state because they were shouting out the bus windows.

 

In division 3 Eau Claire Regis won a pair of nail-biting games to advance to Appleton. Regis shutout St. Croix Central in the semifinal game 1-0 behind a 10 strikeout performance by Mark Shaver. The Ramblers went on to get an 8-7 come from behind win over Ladysmith in the sectional final. DH John Frommelt hit a bases loaded 2 run RBI double to secure the win for the Ramblers who last won a state baseball champioship in 2002. The Ramblers will now face Kenosha St. Joseph on June 13th at 3:00.

You can check out all the state pairings, dates, times, eventual scores and box scores on our homepage.

 

The aforementioned Brad Hallberg has an older brother Mark Hallberg who was a 2004 graduate of Barron High School and did play for the Eau Claire Cavaliers. Mark is currently playing SS for the Florida State Seminoles and currently has a .360 batting average with 3 HR,  56 RBI's and has an excellent fielding percentage of .975.

 

Hayward has hired Richard  "Whitey" Gilbertson as it's new boys basketball coach. Gilbertson is a member of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame and was girls basketball coach at Clinton high school for 30 years where his teams won over 500 games and won a state championship in 2003. One of the more high profile players to come from Gilbertson's leadership is Kelsey Duoss who just finished her distinguished basketball career at UW-Stout.  This past season Gilbertson was an assistant basketball and baseball coach at Beloit college.

 

The WIAA 2007 summer baseball season is underway but it remains to be seen whether or not there will be a 2008 summer baseball season. The school districts of Baldwin-Woodville and New Richmond recently voted to switch from summer baseball to spring baseball beginning in 2008. This means the Middle Border Conference will have a full compliment of teams (8) for it's spring baseball season next year and also means there will be even fewer teams competing in summer baseball. The WIAA has said that it will only keep summer baseball if there are more than 64 schools carrying a summer baseball program. With the recent switches that number seems to be right around 64 and could go a bit below it if other school districts make the switch from summer to spring baseball.