Wolverines defeat Panthers in semi-final action

[September 19, 2017]  The West Lincoln-Broadwell Wolverines traveled across town to take on the Chester East Lincoln Panthers in an IESA semifinal Regional game on Saturday with the Wolverines picking up the 8-3 win. Scotty Battin earned the win going 3 full innings giving up 3 hits and walking 5 Panthers. Griffen Turner was handed the loss after throwing 4 innings giving up 6 runs, 5 earned. WLB's Sam Gleason threw 3 strong innings and was followed up by an inning of work from Dauton Miller. Jaden Klopp and Sean Raffa both saw action for the Panthers.

WLB scored in the first inning on a 1-out walk by Scotty Battin who advanced to 3rd on a throwing error on Daulton Miller's ground ball. 7th grader Jacob Langley knocked in Battin with an RBI ground out to shortstop. The Wolverines added another run in the 2nd inning on an RBI double by Michael Lucas. Three more runs were pushed across in the Wolverine half of the 3rd inning with the big hit coming from a 2-out, 2-run single by Trey Schilling.

The Panthers got on the scoreboard in their half of the 3rd inning when Griffen Turner scored on a wild pitch after reaching base with a 1-out walk. The Wolverines got the run back in the top of the 4th inning when Daulton Miller's fielder's choice scored Michael Lucas.

The Panthers' best chance to score came in the bottom of the 4th inning when the first 4 batters reached base. Griffen Shaw's RBI single cut the WLB lead to 6-2 with nobody out. Sam Gleason was called upon to get out of the jam and did so quickly and efficiently. Gleason struck out the next 2 batters and ended the inning with a come-backer to hold the Panthers at bay.

In the bottom half of the 5th inning, the Panthers cut the lead in half when Tyler Sasse doubled to lead off the inning and later scored on an infield ground ball. WLB added 2 insurance runs in the top of the 7th inning on Sam Gleason's RBI triple and Trey Schilling's RBI single to bump the WLB lead to 8-3.

Wolverine 8th grader Daulton Miller came in to finish up the game on the mound retiring 3 of the 4 batters he faced. All 3 outs were recorded as ground outs to shortstop.

In the other semi-final Regional game played at CEL on Saturday, the Delavan Panthers defeated the IESA defending 1A state champion Normal Epiphany 5-0.

WLB Record: 11-6

WLB 8
CEL 3

Pitching:
WLB:
Scotty Battin; WP; 3 IP; 0 K; 5 BB; 2 H; 2 R; 2 ER
Sam Gleason; 3 IP; 3 K; 0 BB; 1 H; 1 R; 0 ER
Daulton Miller; 1 IP; 0 K; 1 BB; 0 H; 0 R; 0 ER

CEL:
Griffen Turner; LP; 4 IP; 1 K; 4 BB; 6 H; 6 R; 5 ER
Jaden Klopp; 2 1/3 IP; 4 K; 0 BB; 2 H; 2 R; 1 ER
Sean Raffa; 2/3 IP; 1 K; 0 BB; 1 H; 0 R; 0 ER

Hitting:
WLB:
Trey Schilling; 3-for-4; double; 3 RBI
Michael Lucas; 2-for-3; double; RBI
Sam Gleason; triple; 2 runs; RBI
Lucas Jones; 2-for-4; run
Drew Eimer; single; run

CEL:
Tyler Sasse; double; run
Jaden Klopp; single
Griffen Shaw; single; RBI
Brendan Wurth; 2 BB; run
Griffen Turner; BB; run

[WLB Coach Jeff Nelson]