Janesville Legion survives elimination in style
JANESVILLE—Janesville's American Legion baseball team took out a season's worth of frustrations on Lake Geneva on Friday night.
Post 205 erupted for 20 runs on 20 hits in a 20-4 win in a loser's bracket game of the District 7 Regional at Riverside Park.
Janesville (20-11) plays Beloit in an elimination game at 11 a.m. Saturday. The winner plays unbeaten Genoa City at 2 p.m. Lake Geneva was eliminated with its second loss of the tournament.
After an opening-round loss to Genoa City on Thursday, Janesville bounced back in a big way. Post 205 fell behind 2-0 in the first but put up three or more runs in four of the next six innings. Logan Coulter led the hit parade with six RBI on two doubles and a triple.
“That's a team we should've beat handily and we did,” Janesville coach Bob Schenck said of Lake Geneva. “We were pretty patient at the plate, and once we got things rolling, we kept it up.
“And Zach (Bailey) gave us six strong innings. That's big in a tournament like this because pitching is at a premium.”
Bailey, a 2015 Janesville Parker graduate and Madison College recruit, struggled in the first but was nearly unhittable after that. The right-hander allowed five hits in six innings but only two hits after the first inning. He struck out four and retired 11 of the last 14 batters he faced.
Janesville took the lead for good with a five-run third. Coulter's two-run triple gave Post 205 the lead for good at 3-2, and Connor Osmond pushed the lead to two with an RBI single to score Coulter. Two more runs scored on a Lake Geneva error and Sam Carlson's single.
Post 205 blew the game open in the fifth with seven runs. The local team sent 13 batters to the plate in the inning thanks to four hits, an error and three walks.
Coulter ripped his first double in the sixth to make it 16-2 and added a two-run double in the seventh for his fifth and sixth RBI.
Connor Osmond had four hits for Janesville, while Bailey, JT Smithback, Coulter and Kevin Brandt had three hits each.
“We've got to win twice tomorrow,” Schenck said. “That's what it comes down to. We've got Alex Marro ready to go in our first game, and if we win, can come back with Logan in the second game.
“If we get to a second game tomorrow, we're going to have to beat that team twice. But we're certainly capable of doing that.”
JANESVILLE 20, LAKE GENEVA 4 (7)
Janesville 015 173 3—20 20 1
Lake Geneva 200 000 2—4 6 5
Z. Bailey, Campbell (7) and Filter, Bohlman (7); Poetzinger, Carlson, Ganansky, Flannery and Pacholczak, Gerrard.
Leading hitters—Smithback (J) 3x6, Z. Bailey (J) 3x6, Coulter (J) 3x6, Osmond (J) 4x5, Brandt (J) 3x4, Carlson (J) 2x4, Flannery (LG) 2x4, Johnson (LG) 2x4. 2B—Smithback (J), Z. Bailey (J), Coulter (J) 2, Carlson (J). 3B—Coulter (J).
SO—Bailey 4, Campbell 1, Poetzinger 4, Carlson 1, Ganansky 1, Flannery 1. BB—Bailey 4, Campbell 3, Poetzinger 1, Carlson 3, Ganansky 2.