WIAA Baseball: Westosha Central, St. Joseph punch their tickets to state tournament (2024)

MIKE RAMCZYK

All season long, Westosha Central junior pitcher Max Nottingham has lived up to his closer role.

On Tuesday at the WIAA Division 1 Janesville Sectional at Riverside Park, Nottingham did it in two straight one-run victories, culminating in a 4-3 victory over Southern Lakes Conference rival Lake Geneva Badger in the sectional final and propelling the Falcons to their second state tournament in three years.

In an interview a few hours after the big victory Tuesday night, Central head coach Jake Morman said Nottingham is the perfect type of player to perform in high-pressure, late-game situations, and his talents were on full display.

“Max Nottingham, I cannot say enough about what he did for us today in both the first and second game,” Morman said. “He did a tremendous job coming out of the bullpen and just was lights out. He shut both teams down. He has a great demeanor for that role.”

With 4-3 victories over both No. 4 Janesville Craig in the sectional semifinal and No. 3 Badger in the sectional final, top-seeded Central improved to 24-5 overall. The Falcons will play in the state tournament Monday at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, home of the Milwaukee Brewers Class A affiliate Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

Nottingham combined for five scoreless innings in the two games, allowing only one hit, striking out three and walking one.

Against Badger, a team the Falcons split with in two games during the regular season, Brody Schulte delivered a quality start with five innings, three earned runs, six strikeouts and only three hits. Morman says Brody and Joe Suokko (the winning pitcher in game one) are 1 and 1a, both looked at as staff aces, and Schulte showed it early, mowing down the Badger batters in three scoreless frames.

Meanwhile, the Falcons had plenty of baserunners and scored a run each in the first, second and third innings. Morman said Schulte made one mistake, a three-run blast by Badger’s Gavin Stewart in the top of the fourth, and suddenly the game was tied at 3-3.

“Brody had really good stuff early in the game,” Morman said. “He was mowing down their guys. We had a lot of runners early on, and we kind of missed some opportunities to open up the game a little bit. He made one mistake pitch, and Gavin hit a three-run homer to tie it.”

Then, the rain came, delaying the game, and Morman reminded his guys it’s a 0-0 game, and it was time to get out of the inning. Schulte showed no rust after the delay, sitting the Badgers down in quick fashion.

Central didn’t waste any time regaining the lead, as Mason Mitacek started the bottom of the fourth, and Suokko eventually brought him home with a sacrifice fly.

After Schulte allowed the tying run to reach first base, Morman brought in Nottingham, and the move paid off in a major way. Nottingham picked the runner off at first, and proceeded to shut down the Badgers to seal the deal.

“Once again, Max was lights out,” Morman said. “He closed out the game and did just a tremendous job in both games.

“We played good defense today and kind of got contributions all over the place. That’s been the way our entire season has gone. We just have a great team. It’s never just one guy, everybody picks each other up, and we win a lot of close games.”

Morman said the Janesville Sectional was the only one to feature four Power 25 teams — Central, Union Grove, Badger, Janesville Craig — in the Prep Baseball Report state rankings.

“Every time we played Badger this year, it was a great game,” Morman said. “They battled. I tip my hat to those guys.”

Mitacek finished 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Falcons.

Carson Sieler, Charlie Dietz, Jake Urban, Evan Leafblad and Backus each added a hit.

ST. JOSEPH 7, SAINT MARY’S SPRINGS 5: Eric Kenesie picked the perfect time to hit his first two home runs of the season.

Kenesie went deep twice, Dominic Santarelli hit another home run after crushing one in the sectional semifinal earlier in the day, and the second-seeded Lancers punched their ticket to the WIAA Division 3 state tournament with a 7-5 sectional final victory over No. 10 Saint Mary’s Springs Tuesday night in Horicon.

For the third time in four years, St. Joseph (23-4) is heading to the state tournament. Kenesie was a part of the state title team his freshman year in 2021, and the Lancers lost in the state semifinal in 2022.

He attributed his power surge Tuesday to the sheer determination to win and have a chance for one last state championship as seniors.

“I think what got into me is what was at stake for today’s game,” Kenesie said. “The last chance for us seniors to make it to state and play for a championship. We all knew we needed something special to happen, and it happened to be me hitting two home runs. It feels absolutely amazing to make it to state again. We are all very excited to have an opportunity to win a state championship, and we are all hungry for the upcoming games.

“I think it was such a great day for us today because we trust each other so much. We were able to trust each other throughout both games. Also, our family bond that we have plays a huge role into why we played so good.”

St. Joseph head coach Ryan Gavinski, who won a state title as a player at South Milwaukee in 1996 and a coach for the Lancers in 2021, returns to the state tournament for the third time in his six seasons.

He said the sectional Tuesday was a grind.

“It was a tough day, truthfully none of our pitchers had their ace stuff, it was a struggle of a day,” Gavinski said. “Eric (Kenesie) didn’t have his great stuff pitching against Saint Mary’s Springs. He didn’t have his great stuff, and we don’t really start him that often. We brought in Tommy and Dom after him. They had enough to get by and get the job done. We made plays behind them and hit just enough to get by today.

“We hit our balls a little bit farther than they hit theirs. We play in big ball parks at Carthage College and Simmons Field, so we don’t hit a lot of home runs. Dom’s and one of Eric’s would’ve went out anywhere. The top of the order carried us today.”

Kenesie and Santarelli homered in the first inning to give St. Joseph a 3-0 lead, but Saint Mary’s tied it up at 3-3 in the third. The Lancers then put up two runs in the bottom of the third to take a 5-3 lead.

Saint Mary’s fought back to tie the game at 5-5 in the sixth, and that set the stage for the Lancers’ half of the sixth.

Tommy Santarelli started the inning with a walk, and Zach Rizzo sent Tommy to third with a single. Chris Kenesie pinch ran for Rizzo, and then Dylan Love’s RBI single made it 6-5.

With Chris Kenesie on third base, Patrick Davidson hit a sacrifice fly to center field, and Kenesie scored on a close play at the plate.

Dom Santarelli shut down Saint Mary’s for the final three outs.

“Now that we got a chance to do this, we’ll take it one game at a time,” Gavinski said. “They’re all good teams (at state), and you have to play clean and not do anything to hurt yourself. We have a very good chance to do this.”

Dominic Santarelli got the win, walking one in the final two scoreless innings. Eric Kenesie started and gave up one earned run and four hits in three innings. Tommy Santarelli tossed two innings, giving up one earned run.

The Lancers committed four errors in the game.

Eric Kenesie and Dom Santarelli both finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

St. Joseph will open the state tournament Tuesday at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.

OAK CREEK 5, INDIAN TRAIL 0: The Hawks ran into a buzzsaw Tuesday evening in their WIAA Division 1 sectional final at Galewski Field in South Milwaukee.

The Knights, fresh off a dominant 6-1 win over Tremper earlier in the day in the sectional semifinal, got a dominant pitching performance from starter Ryan Buchta and Cade Palkowski to silence Indian Trail.

Buchta and Palkowski combined for a three-hit shutout, striking out nine and walking six.

Jack Zeller went the distance for the Hawks, striking out seven, scattering nine hits and allowing five earned runs in a strong performance.

The Knights scored two runs each in the second and sixth innings. They smashed five doubles, including two from Nate Schopf (2-2). Sophom*ore Mack Endres was 3-for-3 with two RBIs to lead Oak Creek.

Indian Trail finished the season 20-9 and beat South Milwaukee 5-4 earlier in the day in the sectional semifinal.

The Hawks, who were led by Zeller’s two hits, just couldn’t get anything going offensively.

“Hats off to Oak Creek and Coach Holler over there who runs a great program,” Indian Trail head coach Lane Ochs said. “They have a good ball club, and they deserved it. We had some opportunities and just didn’t cash in. Jack gave his all on the bump and kept us in the game.

“I am so proud of this group of young men and the trust that they put into myself and the rest of the staff. These seniors set the standard for our program, and I am so excited for the future of this program. Indian Trail Hawks baseball is back, and we are here to stay.”

Conner Foster added a hit for the Hawks.