Thanks to a second place finish at this weekend’s Class A regional tournament at Stoddard Village Park, the Gays Mills Grizzlies qualified for the Wisconsin American Legion Baseball State Tournament for the first time in program history as regional champion Prairie du Chien automatically qualifies as host of this weekend’s Class A State Tournament. The Grizzlies had a tough road to travel this past week in order to get to that second place finish.

Gays Mills began the week by hosting a doubleheader against G-E-T Post 354 last Monday, July 20. The Grizzlies took game one by the score of 11-5. The hosts scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning before G-E-T tied it up with three runs of their own in the top of the third inning. The Grizzlies then opened the game up with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and three more runs in the fifth inning. Post 354 would add single runs in the sixth and seventh innings but they were not able to cut into the Grizzlies lead any further as Gays Mills held on for the 11-5 victory.

Kaden Roberts started on the mound for the Grizzlies and earned the win, allowing four runs (zero earned) on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched. Brody Ray pitched the final 1.2 innings, allowing one run on zero hits and one walk with four strikeouts.

The Grizzlies offense produced 14 hits in the win, including multi-hit games from Cooper Lomas (3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and four RBIs), Roberts (2-for-3 with one walk and one RBI), Ray (2-for-3 with one walk and two runs scored) and Sawyer Stluka (2-for-3 with a double, three runs scored and one RBI). Landry Stluka also doubled in the win for Gays Mills.

Game two was all G-E-T as the visitors scored four runs in the first inning to take an early 4-0 lead and they never looked back. They would add three runs in the third and four runs in the fourth inning to build their lead to 11-0. The Grizzlies would push a run across in the bottom of the fourth inning before the game ended 11-1 in favor of G-E-T Post 354 in four innings.

S. Stluka suffered the pitching loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and three walks in 0.1 inning pitched. He was relieved by L. Stluka (three runs allowed (all earned) on zero hits and four walks with one strikeout in 1.2 innings pitched) and John Turner (four runs allowed (zero earned) on five hits and zero walks with one strikeout in 2.0 innings pitched).

Jordy Huber (1-for-2) had the Grizzlies only hit of the game, a two-out single in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Gays Mills carried an overall record of 10-8 into their opening regional tournament game against Prairie du Chien at Stoddard Village Park last Thursday, July 23. The Grizzlies got on the scoreboard first with one run in the bottom of the first inning. The Grasshoppers briefly tied it at 1-1 with a run in the top of the third inning before the Grizzlies retook the lead with a run in the bottom of the third inning. Both teams were then held scoreless over the next two innings before PdC scored twice in the top of the sixth inning to take their first lead of the game at 3-2.

Following a one-out walk by Roberts and a subsequent single by Turner in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Grizzlies had runners at first and second with only one out. A line out by Jack Gallagher to right field allowed Roberts to tag and advance to third base before coming around to score the tying run on the throw. The Hoppers retired the next batter to send the game to extra innings. PdC would go on to score twice in the top of the eighth inning before holding on for the 5-3 win.

Gallagher took the pitching loss for Gays Mills, allowing five runs (all earned) on nine hits and two walks with six strikeouts in 7.1 innings pitched. Lomas allowed zero runs on one hit and zero walks with one strikeout in 0.1 innings pitched in relief of Gallagher.

The Grizzlies offense was held to six hits as a team in the loss, with L. Stluka (1-for-2 with a double, three walks, one run scored and one RBI) having the team’s only extra base hit in the loss.

The loss put the Grizzlies into an elimination game the next afternoon against Fennimore Post 184. Fennimore began the game by scoring one run in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead before extending it to 2-0 with a run in the top of the fourth inning. Gays Mills cut into the deficit with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth inning. The score would remain the same until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Grizzlies rallied to score two runs with two outs to take a 3-2 lead into the top of the seventh inning. Sam Gallagher (pitching in his third inning of relief) was able to work around a one-out double and subsequent walk by Fennimore to retire the next two batters via fly out to center field and strikeout to close the door on the Railers season and move the Grizzlies into an elimination matchup with host Stoddard.

For a second straight game, the Grizzlies found themselves trailing 1-0 after the top of the first inning. Gays Mills responded right away against Stoddard, scoring once in the bottom of the first inning to even the score at 1-1. The Grizzlies would take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning but not for long as Stoddard would answer in the top of the fifth with one run of their own to make the score 2-2.

The game entered the bottom of the seventh inning still tied 2-2. J. Gallagher reached base on an error by the Stoddard defense to start the inning. That was followed by a walk by Zach Bender and an infield single by S. Gallagher to load the bases for S. Stluka, who then delivered a single to left field to score J. Gallagher and give the Grizzlies a 3-2 walkoff win to eliminate Stoddard and put Gays Mills in the regional championship round against Prairie du Chien.

The winning pitcher for Gays Mills was John Turner (two runs allowed (one earned) on six hits and four walks with six strikeouts in 6.0 innings pitched) with Brody Ray (zero runs on zero hits and two walks in 1.0 inning pitched) keeping Stoddard off the scoreboard in the seventh inning.

S. Stluka (2-for-4 with two doubles, one run scored and one RBI) and L. Stluka (2-for-3 with one run RBI) combined for four of the team’s six hits in the win.

The Grizzlies entered the final day of the regional tournament this past Saturday needing to defeat Prairie du Chien twice for the regional championship, but also knowing they were guaranteed a spot at the Class A State Tournament in Prairie du Chien by finishing in the final two teams of the tournament alongside PdC.

The Grizzlies found themselves trailing 1-0 after the top of the first inning for a third consecutive game. That single run proved to be the only run support PdC starting pitcher Bryce Lenzendorf would need as he would go on to hold the Grizzlies offense to zero runs on zero hits and zero walks in a 4-0 complete game victory. Only an error by the PdC defense in the bottom of the third inning (allowing Bender to reach base for Gays Mills) and Jaxx Wall reaching first base on a dropped third strike in the sixth inning kept Lenzendorf from throwing a perfect game.

Roberts (three runs allowed (two earned) on eight hits and zero walks with seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched) was the losing pitcher for Gays Mills with S. Stluka (one run allowed on three hits and zero walks in 0.2 innings pitched) and L. Stluka (zero runs allowed on one hit with one strikeout in 0.2 innings pitched) to close the game out on the mound.

The Grizzlies (12-10) will begin state tournament play this Friday, July 31 at 10 a.m. against Horicon (10-6) at Dillman Memorial Field on St. Feriole Island in Prairie du Chien.

If Gays Mills wins, they would play the winner of Stratford (13-6) vs. Athens (6-9) at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1. Should the Grizzlies lose, they would drop to the elimination bracket where they would face the loser of the game between Stratford and Athens at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

For those unable to attend the tournament, games will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube by Driftless Sports Network.