The Gays Mills Grizzlies began their first ever Wisconsin American Legion Baseball Association Class A State Tournament this past Saturday morning against Horicon, a program making its third ever Class A State Tournament appearance but first since 2008. The game, originally scheduled for Friday morning, was pushed back a day following the postponement of day one of the tournament due to rain this past Friday.
After a quick 1-2-3 first inning by starting pitcher Jack Gallagher, the Grizzlies offense kicked off the bottom of the first inning with a single by Sawyer Stluka. Following a pop-up by Landry Stluka, Gage Wall reached first on an error by the Horicon shortstop in which S. Stluka advanced to third base. Clean-up hitter Cooper Lomas got the Grizzlies on the scoreboard with a single to left field to drive in S. Stluka, making the score 1-0 before Horicon retired the next two batters to end the inning.
A pair of errors by the Grizzlies to lead of the top of the second inning would come back to hurt Gays Mills as Horicon would tie the game up 1-1 with an RBI groundout for the second out of the inning. A fly out to center fielder Jackson Konichek ended the inning. Kaden Roberts would lead off the bottom of the second inning with a double to left field. He moved over to third base on a sacrifice by Zach Bender before scoring on a dropped third strike to Konichek. Horicon once again got the next two batters out to conclude the inning.
Horicon got a single and a walk with one-out to put runners at first and second before a double steal moved both runners to second and third base before a passed ball allowed Horicon to tie the game 2 to 2. The Grizzlies defense tightened up and retired each of the next batters to end the inning still tied.
Both pitchers locked in for the next three innings and allowed zero runs as the game quickly moved into the bottom of the sixth inning. Jaxx Wall began the inning with an infield single to the shortstop before courtesy runner Brody Ray moved to second base on a sacrifice by Miles Kandler. Ray then advanced to third base on a passed ball with one out before coming around to score the go-ahead run thanks to another passed ball by the Horicon catcher. The visitors then struck out Bender for the third out of the inning as the game entered the seventh inning 3 to 2 in favor of Gays Mills.
Gallagher remained on the mound heading into the top of the seventh inning and he showed why by only needing seven pitches to retire Horicon in order to seal the 3-2 win as the Grizzlies earned their first state tournament victory in program history.
Gallagher (two runs allowed (both unearned) on four hits and one walk with one strikeout in 7.0 innings pitched) outdueled Horicon’s Barrett Meyer (three runs allowed (one earned) on six hits and zero walks with six strikeouts in 6.0 innings pitched) to earn the win in a game that only took an hour and 15 minutes to play.
Lomas (2-for-3 with a double and one RBI) had two of the Grizzlies’ six total hits. Roberts (1-for-3 with one run scored) doubled for Gays Mills’ only other extra-base hit of the game.
The win moved the Grizzlies into a winner’s bracket matchup against Stratford (14-6), who advanced after an 18-5 first round over Athens on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers are appearing in their fourth ever Class A State Tournament, with all occurring in the last four seasons.
Stratford jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to a lead-off walk, an infield error and pair of RBI line outs. The score would remain 2-0 in favor of Stratford until the top of the sixth inning when the Tigers offense erupted for seven runs before adding four more in the top of the seventh inning en route to claiming a 13-0 victory.
Konichek started on the mound for Gays Mills, allowing two runs (both unearned) on one hit and three walks in 1.0 inning pitched. Sam Gallagher (four runs allowed (all earned) on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 4.0 innings pitched) and Ray (seven runs allowed (six earned) on three hits and six walks in 2.0 innings pitched) also pitched for the Grizzlies in the loss.
The offense was held to four hits in the game, singles by L. Stluka, G. Wall, S. Gallagher and Ray.
Gays Mills dropped to 13-11 with the loss and into an elimination bracket game this past Monday morning against Campbellsport (16-7), the 2025 Class AA State Champions who were coming off a 4-3 walk-off victory over Prairie du Chien on Sunday afternoon. Final results and stats of the rest of the Grizzlies tournament run were not available at the time this article was written and will be included in next week’s edition.
