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It was bittersweet, but he got another chance nonetheless.
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La Crosse's Cory Vegel slides safely into third base after Beaver Dam's Ben Schmid fails to catch an overthrown ball during their game Saturday at Loughrey Field in Winona. (Photo by Fred Schulze/Winona Daily News) |
Rechek went the distance in leading Beaver Dam to a 3-2 win over La Crosse on Saturday at Loughrey Field. He gave up zero earned runs, struck out four and walked three.
Earlier this month, Rechek and the Beaver Dam High School baseball team lost 14-4 to La Crosse Aquinas in the WIAA Division 1 state baseball tournament.
“I wanted to give him a second shot,” said Joe Loizzo, who coaches both Beaver Dam’s high school and legion teams. “Nick pitched well at state and had a good season, going 7-2. (Aquinas) just dropped a lot of hits in front of our outfield.”
Recheck lasted 42/3 innings, giving up nine hits, four walks and three earned runs.
Aquinas had 16 hits in the state win — 15 of those were singles, and the other was a double. Beaver Dam’s outfield played very deep in the game.
“I didn’t have my best stuff the day of state,” Rechek said. “I was a lot better today.”
On Saturday, Rechek and the Beaver Dam American Legion baseball team got a rematch with a La Crosse team made up mostly of Central and Aquinas players.
Both teams were at the WIAA state baseball tournament — Aquinas made it to the Division 3 state championship, before falling.
Now, obviously, comparing a state tournament to a midseason legion tournament is a stretch, but it still felt good for Beaver Dam (9-0) to get back at La Crosse, which was no hit on Friday.
“It is a little different,”
La Crosse’s John Munson said. “I don’t think we came out too ready today. (Rechek) pitched well.”
Rechek held La Crosse to just three hits Saturday. Beaver Dam committed four errors, but managed to overcome them.
La Crosse got up 1-0 in the second inning, but Beaver Dam came back in the third with a pair of RBI singles — all eight hits in the game were singles — by Cory Martin and Steve Propst.
La Crosse tied the game in the fourth inning, but in the bottom half, Beaver Dam’s Matt Eschenbauch put his team ahead for good with an RBI single.
“It was nice to pick it up today,” said Eschenbauch, who was a captain for the high school team. “At state we were pumped, but came out flat. Like everyone, we went into the tournament wanting to win it all.”
Eight of Beaver Dam’s 16 players played on the high school team. Two of them are freshmen in college. Kyle Lee plays baseball for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Martin plays for Marian College.
Alex Bahr got the loss for La Crosse, despite a solid effort. He struck out six, walked none and gave up one earned run.
Bahr was also the starter in Aquinas’ state championship game, which it lost 3-2 to Marathon.
