Legion baseball: Eau Claire cruises past Marshfield in state tournament opener
Jul. 26—Even after a few days off, the Eau Claire Pizza Hut Post 53 Legion baseball team kept rolling on Tuesday.
Eau Claire scored four times in the second inning to take the lead and never looked back in a 14-3 win over Marshfield at the Class AAA state tournament in Sheboygan. The tournament-opening victory puts Eau Claire in the winner's bracket at the double-elimination event.
Post 53 (20-13) will face the winner of the game between Sheboygan and Genoa City, a contest which was set to take place late Tuesday night, at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday.
Eau Claire trailed 1-0 entering the second inning, but its offense quickly found a groove. Mason Kostka blasted a two-run home run to put his side in front in the top of the second, and Post 53 kept piling on from there. Jack Kein hit a two-RBI double later in the inning, and Kostka added a run-scoring double of his own in the third.
Kein finished with five RBIs for Eau Claire. He and Kostka provided more than half of the team's offense, but they weren't the only contributors.
Sam Feck drove in two runs with a triple in the fourth and Jonah Hanson followed with an RBI single. It put Eau Claire ahead by seven.
Kein brought home his third, fourth and fifth runs of the game with a bases-clearing double in the sixth, and Dylan O'Connell made it back-to-back doubles for Eau Claire with one of his own to bring home Kein.
Christian Schaller took care of the rest in a solid outing on the mound.
Coming off last week's perfect game against Chippewa Falls at regionals, Schaller pitched five innings, struck out six and held the Blue Devils to three runs.
Andrew Milner threw 1.2 scoreless innings in relief and Will Thibodeau got the final out to seal Eau Claire's victory. Milner struck out two.
Jonah Hanson had four hits and an RBI for Eau Claire. The team pounded 17 hits collectively and has scored in double figures in each of its four postseason games this summer. Eau Claire has outscored those four opponents 49-9.
A tournament-opening victory at state is common for Post 53. Prior to dropping its opener at the 2019 state tournament, Eau Claire had won its first game at state in seven consectuive appearances.
Eau Claire 14, Marshfield 3
Eau Claire 041 304 2; — 14 17 1
Marshfield 100 200 0 — 3 7 2
WP: Christian Schaller (5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K). LP: Kale Weisenberger (3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K). Leading hitters: Eau Claire: Jonah Hanson 4-4 (RBI), Jack Kein (2 2B, 5 RBI), Mason Kostka (2B, HR).
