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It is official...the Dodgeville high school baseball team are the 2021 SWC conference champions.
They did it with a 13-2 win over Richland Center Tuesday and also got some help from River Valley who shut out Prairie du Chien 3-0 the same day. Prairie had only two losses coming into the game and was the only team left that could catch the Dodgers as the two teams have to play each other twice.
This is the first baseball championship since the 1990s.
The Dodgers have also put together a string of 17 straight wins, no doubt the longest win streak in program history. They also received the top seed in their Regional and received a first round bye. They will play the winner of River Valley vs McFarland on June 15 at home.
Some statistics that stand out in the win that clinched the title over the Hornets were the 12 walks, six hit batters and eight stolen bases the Dodgers manufactured into runs. They had seven hits, three from Ayden Halverson, who had four of the stolen sacks.
Halverson doubled, was wild pitched to third then scored on an errant pick-off attempt to put the Dodgers on the board in the first inning.
Dillon Garthwaite walked and Anthony Vivian was hit by a pitch and both gave way to courtesy runners Garret Busch and Grant Roh with both stealing bases and scoring, Busch on a wild pitch and Roh on a sac fly rbi by Austin Montague.
Halverson walked to open the second, stole the next two bases and scored on a throwing error by the catcher.
The Hornets tried a comeback in the third with a pair of runs aided by an error and a delayed steal but the Dodgers had the answer right away, putting up six runs in the fourth. Rbi singles by Vivian and Dalen Rickard along with three bases loaded walks helped in the scoring.
The Dodgers ended it by the run rule with a three run sixth. Garthwaite had a two run single and Josh Dressler an rbi double for the runs.
Garthwaite worked the first three innings and got the win.  He fanned three, walked two and gave up two hits and two runs.
Halverson pitched the next two with four strikeouts.
Montague finished with a scoreless sixth.
Besides Halverson's three hits the Dodgers also got hits from Dressler, Garthwaite, Vivian and Rickard.