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For the third time in five days, West Bend East tried to pull a North Shore Conference baseball victory out of the fire late.
On Friday night, East got burned. Visiting Nicolet scored two runs in each of the last three innings, including vital insurance runs with the aid of three Suns errors in the seventh, to pull out a 7-5 win at Regner Park.
"I don鈥檛 expect that to happen again the rest of the year," East coach Zach Fountain said of his usually- sure-handed Suns. "Give credit to Nicolet, they weathered the storm like we did all week."
It appeared to be falling into place for a dream week for the Suns (8-3, 4--2 NSC) and Mason Roell in particular. His two-out, three-run tying homer set up an 8-7 win over Slinger in eight innings Monday.
His grand slam was the highlight as East scored four in the fifth and four in the sixth to surge into a 9-4 win at Whitefish Bay Wednesday. He stayed hot Friday.
Nicolet starter Ben Ott, an honorable mention all-NSC pitcher last year, retired the first eight batters he faced, half of them by strikeout. Then he hit designated hitter Davis Rowley in the helmet and became a different pitcher in the stretch.
Kaleb Schepp walked to continue the two-out threat in the third and Cutler Schmidt singled to juice the bases. Roell unloaded them with a booming double to left for a 3-1 lead.
East got to Ott again with two down in the fourth. Victor Gurrola got a good swing on an 0-1 offering and with the wind blowing out to right, he left the yard for a 4-1 edge.
"Victor has been struggling if you look at the stats and he鈥檚 a true X-factor bat for us," Fountain said. "He鈥檚 been hitting balls hard all year."
Cutler Schmidt was cruising after allowing a run in the first but consecutive walks to start the fifth landed him in trouble. He got Hayden Konczal to ground to short and got a force out, but Roell, a smooth-fielding, all-NSC infielder, normally turns that into a double play.
Schmidt struck out Ott and had cleanup hitter Gabe Nelson down in the count, 1-2, with a borderline pitch that could have gotten him out of the inning. The at-bat continued and Nelson doubled to center on the next pitch with the gusting wind fooling Schepp in center.
"No doubt about it," Fountain said of the wind鈥檚 part in the double. "Kaleb is one of the best center fielders in the North Shore and there鈥檚 no one I trust more."
Roell came on in relief of Schmidt and gave up a pair of singles in the sixth.
See SUNS, PAGE 2B
Megan Sheridan/Special to the Daily SM天地论坛
From Page 1B
After a strikeout, he hit Aidan Dobson, the ninth hitter, before falling behind leadoff hitter Nolan Sandee.
On a 2-0 count, Sandee doubled down the right field line to put the Knights in front. East normally relies on its defense but in the seventh, it all turned sour.
Shortstop Blake Twito couldn鈥檛 get the handle on a grounder and threw low to first. Gurrola followed by throwing low to first on another grounder and when Nelson broke late for third on a pitch that bounced, catcher Ben Hesse had time to get him but sailed the throw.
鈥淓very team has an inning where they struggle defensively,鈥 Fountain said. 鈥淥urs came at a tough time.鈥
A passed ball would bring in another run for a 7-4 Nicolet advantage. Sandee came on to pitch the seventh inning and a pair of leadoff walks had East entertaining more late magic.
Roell beat out an infield single with one out to bring in one run but was caught trying to steal second by Nicolet catcher James Wirth. Sandee then got a strikeout to end it.
鈥淲e came from behind all week and we got ourselves in a position to win but it went the other way,鈥 Fountain said. 鈥淲e both have veteran squads and we play each other so well.鈥
East heads to Oshkosh North today.