Timely hitting pushes Oak Creek past Brookfield East, 7-4

FRANKLIN, Wis. – They needed only four hits, and the No. 10-ranked Oak Creek relied on patience at the plate to help them get past a talented No. 15-ranked Brookfield East team, 7-4, at The Rock Complex in Franklin on Friday.

Despite only collecting four hits, the Knights’ bats looked closer to midseason form, even though it was the program’s first-ever game in spring ball. Head coach Scott Holler’s squad was patient at the plate, worked hard at-bats, and took nine combined walks in the game – and it wasn’t simply a case of wildness from the Spartans’ staff, either.

For example, East’s senior right-hander Riley LeTourneau came out firing in the first, touching 89 mph multiple times, and senior first baseman Andrew Zakula kept his cool by fouling off five or six hard and heavy fastballs to work a walk. LeTourneau pitched out of a miniature jam in the first frame, but the approach and gameplan Oak Creek had in the batter’s box forced the Spartans starter to throw 60 pitches in the first couple innings, removing him from the game after he walked Gunnar Doyle to lead off the third.

Doyle scored later in the inning on Nolan Paar’s sharply grounded single through the right side of the infield. Junior Kyle Fluegel followed Paar’s base hit by dropping a short fly ball into shallow right, scoring the Knights’ second run, and an error later in the inning handed Oak Creek a 3-0 lead.

Meanwhile, East was tallying hits, but they just lacked the big one to start a rally. After a clean first, Oak Creek’s sophomore starter Tyler Peck pitched around a couple second-inning singles by Joey Pagel and Jack Steger. East was also handed a difficult task in facing most of Oak Creek’s best arms, too. It was clear the Knights intended to introduce as many arms as they could to the 2019 season – Peck pitched two innings, fellow sophomore Isaac Engelbrecht struck out the side in his one, Jake Thoreson pitched two, Cade Pisca tossed one, and Fluegel pitched the seventh.

The teams traded error-related runs in the fifth to make it a 4-1 game and Ryan Karst’s infield single brought the Spartans within two in the top of the sixth, but the Knights blew it back open in the bottom of the frame. East pitching walked three of the first batters in the inning, and an error made things messy too, but the Spartans nearly got out of the jam with the help of a couple baserunning miscues by the Knights. With two outs and runners on first and third, Colin Kalinowski lined a single to left scoring his team’s fifth run and more errors helped Oak Creek tack on two more.

Brookfield East briefly rallied in the seventh with the help of LeTourneau’s deep two-run double to center, but ultimately Oak Creek earned the three outs they needed to secure their program’s first-ever spring victory.

For the Spartans, they’ll look to tighten up on defense and cut down the free passes, because they still showed that they have the talent up and down the roster to compete for a shot at state later this season.

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