Sports

Hawks Win Regional Baseball Title

The senior starter pitched seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. Meanwhile, the Falcons' season came to an end.

The Greenfield baseball team needed a big game from a senior Tuesday afternoon, and Evan Greco delivered.

Greco allowed just two hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts in seven shutout innings as the Hustlin’ Hawks downed the Cudahy Packers, 6-0, in a WIAA regional final at Greenfield.

The victory set up a between the third-seeded Hawks and second-seeded Franklin, the defending WIAA state champion, at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

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But before taking on the Sabers, the Hawks had to get past the Packers for the third time this season, and behind Greco, they did just that.

“When we were looking at who should be pitch today, (Nate) Rios has been pitching very well this year. You can pretty much call him our ace,” Greenfield coach Lee Kleszczynski said. “I wanted Greco to go here and win this first round so we had Nate really rested up for Friday. I was a little fearful saving the number one (pitcher), but that’s what (the players) wanted as well, so we went with it.”

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Greco retired the first eight batters he faced, a stretch that included five consecutive strikeouts. He allowed only two runners to reach second base but was in command from the beginning.

“A senior pitching in a game where if you lose you go home,” Kleszczynski said. “Today, he really located his fastball really well. His curveball wasn’t there for him all the time, but his fastball was painting the corners on both sides of the plate.”

Offensively, Greenfield gave Greco all the support he needed with three runs in the first. Nick Jablonski had one of Greenfield’s four hits in the innings, an RBI single to center field, and the other two runs scored courtesy of Cudahy’s three errors.

The Hawks tacked on a run in the second on Rios’s RBI double and two in the third on RBI singles by Tyler Haim and Tyler Braden.

Greenfield collected 12 hits as every starter had at least one.

“They really pounded the ball on the ground today,” Kleszczynski said. “I liked that, and the line drives. The guys really sat on the ball and hammered it hard. I was really happy with the approaches at the plate.”

Up next for the Hawks (18-13) are the defending state champion Sabers, who improved to 24-7 by defeating seventh-seeded St. Thomas More, 11-4, Tuesday.

“We’ve got nothing to lose. I think they’ll be the guys who are a little tighter if we’re in that ball game,” Kleszczynski said. “Our guys are athletes, they want to play the best. They’ll be ready to play Franklin.”

The sectional final is 4:30 p.m. Friday at South Milwaukee. Top-seeded Oak Creek and fourth-seeded South Milwaukee will play in a semifinal earlier Friday.

In other regional action, Whitnall’s season came to an end with a 4-3 loss to Mukwonago at home Tuesday.

Whitnall (17-13) trailed, 4-0 through 5 1/2 innings before scoring three times in the sixth on RBI hits by Luke Mentkowski and Danny Weymier.

Mukwonago's Jake Tuttle pitched 5 2/3 innings with two runs allowed and nine strikeouts.

"Tuttle was very good," Whitnall coach Brian Johnsen said. "He threw both pitches for strikes whenever he wanted. I give him credit but I am proud of my guys for battling back."


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