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Appleton East Edges Appleton North In Nine Innings

May 27, 2016

By Spencer Flaten
Staff Writer 

APPLETON, Wis.—Appleton East played the role of spoiler on Appleton North’s senior day with a 3-2 win over the Lightning in nine innings.

The game had solid pitching from both teams, and it was Appleton East who was finally able to manufacture enough offense to take home a win.

North’s Josh Gonzales and East’s Chris Beyer were both dealing early. The first run of the game came in the top of the third, when an error on a routine ground ball by North allowed the Patriots to go ahead 1-0.

The lead was short-lived, though. In the bottom of the inning, Evan Bohman hit a sacrifice fly for the Lightning to tie the game.

The next five innings were largely uneventful, which can be attributed to the performances of Beyer, Gonzales and Mitch Eady on the mound.

The Patriots got two runners on base in the top of the fifth, but Eady induced a double play ball to escape the danger.

East got two runners on again in the top of the seventh, and even got them into scoring position, but Eady got out of the jam with a groundout.

Offense finally prevailed in the top of the ninth. Forrest Lampert and Nick Goudreau both hit RBI singles for the Patriots to grab a 3-1 lead.

The Lightning showed a lot of fight in the bottom of the ninth despite trailing by two runs. A single by Jacob Hiltunen and a double by Cam Polce put runners on second and third with only one out. Carl Valk drew a walk in the next at bat to load the bases.

At that point, East turned to Bennett Groves to relieve Beyer. The first batter he faced, Taylor Borchers, hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead down to one. Noah Kuester drew a walk to again load the bases, but Groves got Evan Sankey to ground out to end the game.

Beyer got the win on the mound. He went 8.1 innings and allowed just two runs on eight hits and four strikeouts. Gonzales pitched 4.1 innings for the Lightning and allowed just one hit and no earned runs. Eady went the final 4.2 innings and allowed one earned run with two strikeouts.

Borchers paced the North offense with a 2-for-4 performance with an RBI. No Patriot finished with more than one hit, but Lampert finished 1-for-4 with an RBI and a stolen base.

The loss extended the Lightning’s losing streak to three games and made their record 16-9. East moved to 10-10 with the win.

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