Appleton North baseball rallies to defeat Appleton West in WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal

AppletonSportsPage.com

APPLETON – Appleton North scored six times in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a one-run deficit and defeated crosstown rival Appleton West 9-4 in a WIAA Division 1 baseball regional semifinal Tuesday at North High School.

The No. 4 seed Appleton North (16-7) will host No. 5 Green Bay Preble (18-7) for a Division 1 regional final on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

The Lightning led 3-1 after RBI singles by Brennan Otto and Jack Kangas, and an error in the third inning.

Appleton West (7-17) pulled ahead in the fifth when Cameron St. John smacked a three-run homer.

After West starter Loren Georger left after the fifth inning due to hitting his pitch limit, and finishing with 10 strikeouts, North found its offense.

The Lightning plated six runs in the decisive sixth inning as Aedan Waterstreet had a pinch-hit RBI double and scored on a single by Griffin Stan. Levi Watts followed with an RBI single and Otto knocked in two more with another hit before the rally ended with a run-scoring single from Kangas.

Cash Christianson retired the Terrors in order in the seventh to finish off the win and send North into the regional finals.

Otto had two hits and three RBI, and Kangas finished with two hits and two RBI for the Lightning.

Lightning 9, Terrors 4
Appleton West   001   030   0   –   4   5   2
Appleton North   003   006   x   –   9   8   1
WP: Teegan Karpinske. LP: Michael Gwiazdon.
SO: Loren Georger (5 inn.) 10, Gwiazdon (1 inn.) 0; Logan Hudson (4 1/3 inn.) 8, Karpinske (1 2/3 inn.) 1, Cash Christiansen (1 inn.) 1. BB: Georger 4, Gwiazdon 0; Hudson 2, Karpinske 0, Christianson 0.
Top hitters: AW, Cameron St. John 2×4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI. AN, Levi Watts 1×2, 2 BBs, 2 runs, RBI; Brennan Otto 2×4, 3 RBI; Jack Kangas 2×4, 2 RBI; Thomas Carew 2 runs; Aedan Waterstreet, 2B, RBI.
Records: Appleton West 7-17; Appleton North 16-7.