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For an hour and 40 minutes Mineral Point and St. Mary Catholic played a cat and mouse game to see who would survive in the WIAA Division 3 state baseball tournament semifinals.
But what happened in the first minute proved to be the defining moment and decided the game.
St. Mary lead off hitter Caden Uhlenbrauck found a small jet stream. The soft liner he hit to right kept sailing, right over Jaron Walrack's head and into the corner with Walrack giving chase. Uhlenbrauck did not slow down and raced to third as Walrack hurried his throw to the cutoff man. When the relay toss eluded the cut, Uhlenbrauck continued his journey home.
For the Zephyrs it was one up, one hit and one run.
Before the opening frame was over the Zephyrs coined another hit, this one by winning pitcher TJ Skrzypczak whose single to left with two outs brought in Christian Jack who had walked. That gave the Zephyrs a 2-0 lead.
Skrzypczak was a story within a story as the junior hurler allowed just one hit, a fourth inning slow hopper to third by Isaac Lindsey who beat the throw to first. Lindsey was promptly erased via a double play.
That play was important as it allowed Skrzypczak to face the minimum number of batters--21--in the game.
Two more runs by the Zephyrs in the third made it 4-0. Gorgen started the frame with eight straight balls prompting coach Jordan Tibbits to make a call for relief in the form of freshman Liam Stumpf. Stumpf immediately coaxed a ground out and both runners moved into scoring position.
The Pointers elected to give Jack a free pass to load the bases which had some life as Davis Wilson popped out foul to first. But with Skrzypczak up again his hard grounder to third was mishandled allowing a run to score. Stumpf then nicked Holden Fischer with a pitch forcing in a run and making it 4-0.
Skrzypczak struck out five and did not walk a batter. His teammates backed him with errorless ball. The only time he had to go to the stretch all day was when Lindsey reached first.
He kept us off balance," said Tibbits about Skrzypczak. "We hit the ball hard at times but mostly it was right at them and we never got anything going consistently."
The Pointers lose only one senior from this year's 18-5 team, Joey Dolphin.
"I am glad we got here so he could play in a state tournament," Tibbits said. "He has done a lot of things for us and we will miss him."
MINERAL POINT O (ab-r-h)
Grady Gorgen p/cf 3-0-0, Liam Stumpf cf/p 3-0-0, Justin Baehler c 3-0-0, Isaac Lindsey ss 2-0-1, Grant Bossert 2b 2-0-0, Joey Dolphin 1b 2-0-0, Curtis Cox 3b 2-0-0, Owen Stephenson dh 2-0-0, Uriah Ottoway lf 2-0-0, Jaron Walrack rf 0-0-0, Nolan Springer rf 0-0-0. Totals 21-0-1 E-Walrack, Cox
ST MARY CATHOLIC 4 (ab-r-h)
Caden Uhlenbrauck 3b 2-2-1, Drew Zimmer lf 2-0-0, Christian Jack ss 1-1-0, Davis Wilson 3-0-0, Max Griffith pr 0-0-0, TJ Skrzypczak 3-0-1, Ethan Davidson cr 0-0-0, Holden Fischer c 1-0-0, Chris Seveska rf 3-0-0 Bryce Puls dh 3-0-0, Isaac Griffith cf 1-1-0, Mitchell Lukasik 1b 0-0-0. Totals 19-4-2
PITCHING
MP-Grady Gorgen 2 ip, 2h, 4 r, 2 er, 3 bb 2 k
Liam Stumpf 4 ip, 0 h. 0 r, 0 er, 3 bb, 4 k
SMC--TJ Skrzypczak 7 ip, 1 h, 0 bb, 0 r, 0 er, 0 bb, 5 k