Revenge over Shorewood a highlight of Brown Deer's positive week

Jake Schimenz's one-out solo home run keyed a five-run eruption for the Brown Deer baseball team on June 19, as the Falcons avenged a loss the previous night to Shorewood with a 7-2 decision.

"We didn't play very well the night before (in a 7-1 loss)," Falcons coach Mike Donahue said. "We expected to do better in this game and we did. It's just that sometimes we play so many young guys, it's hard to be consistent."

The Falcons used that victory as a launchpad of sorts. They lost a non-conference game to Nicolet, 14-1, on June 20 and dropped a tough 6-5 Woodland Conference decision to Whitnall on June 21, but then won two games in the West Allis Central Wood Bat Tourney on Saturday, beating West Allis Hale, 6-3, and then host Central, 9-2.

They then followed that up with a 12-8 Woodland win over St. Francis on Monday that was not as close as it looked.

"We hit the ball, in fact the kids liked the wood bats on Saturday," Donahue said. "We also didn't make a lot of errors or issue a lot of walks and that always holds innings down."

Brown Deer took on St. Francis again on Tuesday, host Greendale at 7 p.m. Thursday in a Woodland tilt and then host non-conference opponent Sussex Hamilton at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Shorewood, which went on to fall to Greendale, 12-2, on June 21 and South Milwaukee, 12-1, on June 22, started the week at 2-9 in league play and 3-12 overall.

Errors cost Greyhounds

Of the Brown Deer loss, Greyhounds co-coach Jason Calvert simply said: "Last night (June 18), they made the errors and we won, and tonight we made the errors and they won."

That much was the case. The game was 2-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth. After Schimenz's laser-beam, left field corner home run, Zach Miller's RBI single made it 4-2. After a pop-out, an error made it 5-2 and then sophomore pitcher Hunter Betts helped himself with a two-run double.

He was out at third trying to stretch it to a triple, but he had helped secure a 7-2 lead for the Falcons.

An RBI single by the Greyhounds' pitcher Oskar Bjornstad made it 7-3 in the top of the sixth but that was as close as Shorewood would get.

Fellow sophomore Ryan Hudson relieved Betts in the middle of the sixth and after two walks in the seventh he got defensive help from Schimenz at shortstop as Schimenz executed a perfect 6-3 game-ending double play on a ball hit toward the middle.

"Jake plays a great shortstop," Donahue said. Betts had eight strikeouts and three walks in earning the victory.

Shorewood had taken a 2-0 lead in the first on RBIs from Elliott Kucharczyk and Bjornstad. Bjornstad deserved a better fate on the hill, Calvert said.

"The errors just killed us," he said. "They had only a couple of earned runs tonight, and our problems were on routine plays. We make those plays we can win this game. Our offense also lost a little of its focus. We were swinging at too many pitches out of the strike zone. We needed a better approach if we were to have won this one."

Catcher Cooper Lang had three hits and Kucharczyk two for Shorewood.

Other selected summaries for Brown Deer:

Brown Deer 12, St. Francis 8: Drew Worth pitched five innings of one-run ball and left with a 10-1 lead before relievers took over. Schimenz had three hits including two doubles and a triple while senior Nicky Bersch had three hits including a double. Ian Betts, Pietro D'Amato (two doubles), Kyle Okray and Worth all had two hits for the Falcons.

Worth had seven strikeouts on the evening.

Brown Deer 6, West Allis Hale 3: Hunter Betts threw a seven-inning four-hitter for the win with four strikeouts and three walks. A four-run first gave Brown Deer the lead for good, as Schimenz had three hits, and Okray and D'Amato two apiece.

Brown Deer 9, West Allis Central 2: It was Hudson's show, as he threw a complete game three-hitter behind five strikeouts and six walks. He also had three hits and three RBIs as a six-run second inning gave him all the cushion he would need against the Bulldogs. He also got offensive help from Ian Betts (two hits and two RBIs) and Kennedy McGuigan, who had three hits.

Donahue said he brought up a number of junior varsity players for the tourney as a funeral of an local parent called away some of the varsity team members.