With the cancellation of their home regular season finale doubleheader finale against Fennimore on Monday, July 20, the Prairie du Chien Grasshoppers 19U legion baseball team entered their regional tournament at Stoddard this past weekend looking to claim the program’s first regional championship since 2023.

The Hoppers took on Gays Mills last Thursday afternoon in the regional opening game and saw the Grizzlies take an early 1-0 lead after one inning. PdC tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third inning on a single by Blake Reynolds with one out that allowed Carter Copsey to score from second base. Gays Mills would regain the lead in the bottom of the third inning on an error with two outs that made the score 2-1 in favor of the Grizzlies.

The game remained 2-1 in favor of Gays Mills until the sixth inning. Reynolds led off the inning with an infield single that was followed two batters later by a double to left field that scored Reynolds and eventually Marx himself on a Grizzlies error as the Hoppers took their first lead of the game at 3-2.

The game entered the bottom of the seventh inning with the Hoppers still leading 3-2 before an error by the Hoppers defense with two outs allowed Gays Mills to tie the game up 3-3. PdC’s Alan Hernandez was able to salvage the inning by striking out the next batter to send the game to extra innings. Bryce Lenzendorf was hit by a pitch to start off the top of the eighth inning and moved to second base on a single by Marx to give the Hoppers runners at first and second with no outs. Brady Lenzendorf moved both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice back to the Grizzlies’ Jack Gallagher for the first out of the inning. After an intentional walk to Hernandez, PdC’s Jack Simmons singled to left field to score Bryce Lenzendorf to make the score 4-3 before a single by Carter Tonne drove in Marx to push the score to 5-3 in favor of the Hoppers. Prairie du Chien would work around a one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth inning to close the door on the 5-3 win.

Reynolds started on the mound for Prairie du Chien, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and five walks with eight strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched. He was relieved by Hernandez, who earned the win on the mound in spite of one run allowed (unearned) on one hit and three walks with one strikeout in 1.0 inning pitched before Copsey (zero runs allowed on zero hits and one walk in 0.2 innings pitched) closed the door on the Grizzlies for the save.

The Hoppers offense was led by multi-hit games from Reynolds (2-for-4 with one run scored), Marx (2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and one RBI) and Hernandez (2-for-3 with one walk).

The win moved PdC into a matchup against host team Stoddard last Friday afternoon. The Hoppers took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning before Stoddard answered with three runs in the top of the second inning. The Prairie du Chien offense responded in the bottom of the second inning with seven runs to take a 9-3 lead that they would add to with one run in the third and two runs in the fourth and fifth innings en route to claiming a 14-4 win in five innings.

Cael Koenig earned a complete game victory for the Hoppers, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits and four walks with three strikeouts in 5.0 innings pitched.

The offense pounded out 14 hits in the win, including multi-hit games from Copsey (2-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI), Reynolds (4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and three RBIs), Bryce Lenzendorf (3-for-3 with one walk, one run scored and three RBIs) and Simmons (2-for-3 with one walk, two runs scored and two RBIs). PdC also got one double each from Hernandez and Marx in the win.

The Hoppers advanced to the regional championship round with the win, only needing to win one more game to claim the title. Forcing a Saturday afternoon rematch was the Gays Mills Grizzlies would guranteed themselves their first state tournament appearance as a program by reaching the championship round.

Awaiting the Grizzlies on the mound was Hoppers starting pitcher Bryce Lenzendorf and he delivered one of the best pitching performances in program history. Lenzendorf allowed zero runs on zero hits and zero walks while striking out six batters in a complete game victory. Only a third inning error and the Grizzlies’s Jaxx Wall reaching first base on a dropped third strike in the sixth inning kept Lenzendorf from pitching a perfect game.

The Hoppers offense scored one run in the top of the first inning to give Lenzendorf a lead he would not surrender. PdC would go on to add two more runs in the third inning and one more in the fourth en route to the 4-0 win. Prairie du Chien once again produced 14 hits on offense with Copsey (3-for-4 with a double and one run scored), Bryce Lenzendorf (3-for-4), Brady Lenzendorf (3-for-4) and Jacob Mara (2-for-3 with one run scored) each having multi-hit games in the win for the Hoppers. Reynolds doubled and Marx added a triple to round out the Hoppers extra base hits in the win.

The regional championship win over Gays Mills marks the seventh regional championship in program history. The Hoppers previously won regional championships in 1997 (vs. Black Earth), 2010 (vs. Viroqua), 2017 (vs. Viroqua), 2019 (vs. Fennimore), 2022 (vs. G-E-T) and 2023 (vs. Fennimore).

The 38th Annual Wisconsin American Legion Baseball Association Class A State Tournament begins this Friday, July 31 at Dillman Memorial Field at St. Feriole Island Park in Prairie du Chien. The eight-team double elimination tournament will also feature teams from Gays Mills (12-10), Westby/Coon Valley (20-2), Horicon (10-6), Stratford (13-6), Athens (6-9), Campbellsport (15-6) and Little Chute (12-4).

The Hoppers (11-9) will start the tournament this Friday night at 7 p.m. against Coulee Region American Legion Baseball League rival Westby/Coon Valley. Should the Hoppers win their first game, they would play the winner of the Campbellsport vs. Little Chute game at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. If the Hoppers lose their opening game, they would play the loser of the Campbellsport/Little Chute game at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and for those unable to attend, games will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube by Driftless Sports Network.