Legion baseball: Eau Claire drops opener at Great Lakes Regional
Aug. 3—The remainder of the Eau Claire Pizza Hut Post 53 Legion baseball team's stay in Michigan will be spent with its back against the wall.
Eau Claire dropped its opener at the Great Lakes Regional on Wednesday, falling to Illinois state runner-up Moline 3-2 in Midland, Mich. The defeat drops Post 53 into the loser's bracket in the double-elimination regional.
The Wisconsin state runner-up had its chances to grab an opening victory, but was undone by one shaky inning. Moline scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the first, helped by three Eau Claire errors. Each run was scored unearned.
Eau Claire battled back, but couldn't find an elusive third run to tie the game. It spoiled a standout outing from pitcher Henry Wilkinson. The right-hander held Moline to five hits and struck out eight without surrendering an earned run.
"This was a game we very much could have won," Eau Claire manager Mark Faanes said. "We didn't play a clean game. The guys are disappointed because there were some plays that we could have made that we didn't make. We left some guys on base. Just wasn't our morning."
Eau Claire scored once in the second and once in the third. Jalen Pascal roped an RBI triple to the gap in left-center to get Post 53 on the board in the second. Sam Feck made it a 3-2 lead for Moline with an RBI single in the third.
Post 53 got its leadoff hitter on base in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but couldn't capitalize. Second base was the furthest they could advance the tying run. Eau Claire outhit Moline 8-5. After the first inning, Wilkinson limited Moline to two hits the rest of the way.
"Henry was great," Faanes said. "We wasted a great performance from him. He was awesome. We couldn't have done any better than what he did."
Jonah Hanson and Dylan O'Connell both knocked two hits for Eau Claire, including a double for each.
The game was delayed several hours due to rain, and was the only game that got played on Wednesday as weather forced the other three contests to Thursday. Eau Claire will play the loser of the game between Muncie, Ind., and Gladwin, Mich., in an elimination game next. Muncie and Gladwin will square off on Thursday.
Eau Claire's next game is tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday.
"We need to, obviously, pick the ball up and throw them out," Faanes said. "We need to get a base hit when we've got guys on base. We had plenty of opportunities today and just didn't get the job done. But the guys will bounce back and we've got plenty of pitching, so I'm still pretty confident with where we're at."
Wisconsin's other representative at the regional, Manitowoc, trailed Aviston, Ill., 3-0 before the game was suspended to be resumed Thursday.
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Moline 3, Eau Claire 2
Eau Claire;011;000;0;— 2 8 5
Moline;300;000;X;— 3 5 0
WP: Braden Thatcher (7 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K). LP: Henry Wilkinson (6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K). Leading hitters: Eau Claire: Jonah Hanson 2-3 (2B), Dylan O'Connell 2-4 (2B), Jalen Pascal 1-3 (3B, RBI).
