Posted: July 23, 2010 |(0) Comments

Though a large chunk of the school was still flooded, the Nicolet baseball team kept its eyes on the prize in the rain-delayed WIAA sectional at Cedarburg on Friday, as the Knights used Sam Kohnke's strong pitching and clutch two-run homer to overpower rival Whitefish Bay, 11-1, in a semifinal contest.

With the win, the Knights (25-11) advanced to a WIAA sectional final back at Cedarburg at 11 a.m. Saturday against Grafton (20-9), which took a gamble and won when it did not pitch ace and Milwaukee Brewers' draft choice Conor Fisk in its 4-2 semifinal win over Brown Deer later that day.

That means the Knights will face the 90-mile an hour flamethrower for the first time in 2010. Nicolet has won both previous meetings with Grafton this season, but in neither instance did the Knights have to face Fisk, who has 138 strikeouts against just 23 walks this summer.

"It'll be interesting," said Knight coach Dick Sykes. "We're dead fastball hitters and he's a power pitcher."

Nicolet beat the four-year letterwinner Fisk four straight times in his sophomore and junior years combined.

The Knights didn't have to display a lot of power in beating Bay on a humid, warm and blessedly sunny day, which was a huge relief to all the water-logged residents of the area, including those in Glendale. Nicolet High School was heavily flooded by the torrential rains yesterday and major damage is reported to the boys lockers and to the gym floor.

Despite that distraction, Nicolet took advantage of what Bay gave it, which meant six walks in a three-run second to make it 3-1 Nicolet and then two critical errors at the start of the third. Those miscues immediately preceded three, two-run singles in the next four at-bats for the Knights, as Joel Sharon, Rob Mayer and Brian Huntsinger all plated two runs apiece to make it 9-1 Nicolet.

That was all the Kohnke really needed, as he had a very good curveball working this day. He finished with nine strikeouts and three walks and allowed only three hits.

Kohnke then put the 10-run "mercy" rule into effect in the bottom of the fifth, when he launched a two-run homer to left. That dinger made up for an otherwise frustrating day at the plate for the senior, as he stranded six runners on base in three previous at-bats.

"They were talking about taking me out (of the game), so that's why I hit the homer," he laughed afterwards.

The win had big symbolic meaning to the Knight seniors as it got a bit of a monkey off their back from last year, where they again entered sectional as the top seed, but lost to eventual state tournament participant Homestead.

But in Kohnke's eyes, the work isn't done yet as the Knights look to gain their first state tournament berth since 2006.

"We were pointing to this (sectional), all year," he said. "Last year was bad news, so we were eager to get here and get the work done. Get all of this off our chest."

Sykes was appreciative of the Knights' smart approach at the plate.

"We could see that they (the three Blue Duke pitchers) were having a hard time throwing strikes, so that gave us an opportunity to sit on a pitch," he said. "Something like that puts a lot of pressure on a young staff like theirs. And we have a good hitting line-up top-to-bottom. We really don't give you any relief."

Still, Blue Duke coach Jay Wojcinski didn't want to use that as an excuse.

"When you walk guys, don't make the plays in the field and can't hit, it's a recipe for disaster," he said. 'We've done that off and on all season. Give credit to Nicolet though. Kohnke threw a good game and they otherwise did everything they needed to do to win today."

Bay had taken a short-lived second-inning lead, when Mike Leckie, who had singled, scored on a fielder's choice.

GRAFTON 4, BROWN DEER 2

Blackhawk senior pitcher Dylan Mayer was no Fisk in his approach, but he used a variety of off-speed pitches and locations to keep the hard-hitting Falcons off-balance for most of the game finishing with just one strikeout and one walk in advancing Grafton to the sectional final.

He retired 13 of his last 14 batters he faced and his one strikeout was huge, as it started that run. The Falcons had forged ahead 2-1 in the third on RBI fielder's choices from Sean Andryauskas and Joey Mattefs but still had two runners on base when Mayer froze Falcons' team leader and arguably best hitter Danny Korpela on an inside corner, full-count fastball for the final out in the third.

Brown Deer would never advance a runner past first again.

"The kid kept us off-balance and he got the ball over the plate," said Brown Deer coach Mike Donahue. "They took a gamble and won. I hope it pays off for them."

The Blackhawks took the lead back for good in the bottom of the third on four hits. The eventual gamewinner came in on a sacrifice fly by Mayer himself.

Brown Deer turned in a stellar defensive play to prevent that inning from being even worse, as on Alex Nennig's RBI single, the Blackhawks tried to score another runner, but Korpela in centerfield relayed a strong throw to Mattefs at second. Mattefs then hit Brett Youngbeck at the plate with a perfect strike that easily beat the sliding runner for the final out of the frame.

Mattefs finished his career on a strong note, throwing three innings of shutout relief for starter Drew Worth.

"I thought we could get something done here," said Donahue. "It just didn't quite work out."