Sports

The Stoughton Home Talent team finished a comeback with a game-winning RBI single by Tanner Klitzke in the 10th inning to lead the Merchants to a 5-4 win over Albion.

The hit knocked in Scott Nachreiner.

Stoughton also received a gift run in the first inning when an apparent tag on Rory Menzer went unnoticed in a play that tied the game at 1-all.

Albion built a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth when Stoughton rallied to tied the game and send it into extra innings.

Klitzke, Max Fuller and Jake Wenzel all finished 2-for-5 for the Merchants. Klitzke also doubled.

Erick Sperloin picked up the win in relief. He pitched a perfect 10th inning.

Ben Riffle had a no-decision. He went nine innings and allowed an earned run on nine hits. He struck out six and walked three.

Mike Nanstead picked up the loss. He allowed an earned run on two hits in 1 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.

There is no other way to put it. This was one of the best baseball seasons in Stoughton High School history.

A Badger South Conference championship, a regional title, the first state berth since 1986 and a trip to the semifinals to tie the best finish by a Stoughton baseball team. It will be in memories of the players and coaches and be placed on plaques and walls forever.

Although the season came to a crashing halt with a 15-5 loss in five innings to Sun Prairie in the WIAA Division 1 state semifinals in Grand Chute, senior third baseman Zach Bower said he believes the accomplishment raises the bar for future players on the team.

“It is great to make history, to come back to school, look up on the wall and see that ’13 up there,” Bower said. “I hope they can keep doing it and keep that tradition alive at Stoughton.”

Junior pitcher PJ Rosowski struck out Neenah designated hitter Adam Gruett for the Stoughton baseball team and let out a roar as he headed back to the bench in the seventh.

So it seemed fitting that in the bottom of the inning, he would be up with the bases loaded and one out with a chance to win the game in Stoughton’s first state tournament appearance since 1986.

As senior catcher Ben Gerber took off for home, Rosowski put down a picture-perfect bunt to the first-base side to send him in safely and start a chain reaction of dogpiles that traveled from home plate all the way to first in a 4-3 win Thursday afternoon in a WIAA Division 1 quarterfinal at Time Warner Cable Field in Grand Chute.

Tanner Kahl and Elijah Thunell had already achieved one of their goals before ever stepping on the Nielsen Tennis Stadium courts last Thursday at the WIAA Division 1 individual state tennis tournament.

Having already qualified for their first state tournament, the duo played loose throughout their opening doubles match, cruising 6-0, 6-0 over Stevens Point sophomores Trenton Seegert and Noah Meier.

It was the only Division 1 shutout in the opening round.

“The duo’s first shutout-win of the season, Thunell said, “It feels terrific. We could definitely tell they were getting frustrated by the first game of the second set.”

Reischel said other than a double fault and a service-error return, Kahl and Thunell played error-free for nearly the entire first set.

Stoughton baseball capped an unprecedented year for the Vikings’ athletics department, becoming the third team to advance to state and the fourth to win a sectional title.

The boys joined the boys basketball program, which ended a 74-year drought last winter. Stoughton’s boys golf team advanced to what is believed to be there first state appearance, while and the girls track team won its first sectional title.

Stoughton 11, Beloit Mem. 4

Sophomore Cade Bunnell turned 16 in the middle of May. One of two underclassmen starters on the Vikings’ roster this season, Bunnell capped what he called a “heck of a last month,” propelling Stoughton back to the WIAA state baseball tournament for the first time in 27 years with an 11-4 WIAA Division 1 sectional final win over Beloit Memorial.

When senior Anders Tiffany walked down the 18th fairway Tuesday at University Ridge Golf Course during the WIAA Division 1 state golf tournament, it all started to hit him.

Sharing the Badger South Conference title; making it through regionals and sectionals; and finishing his Stoughton High School career at the final meet of the season for all teams.

“It hit me on 18 when I was walking up the fairway. It was like, ‘Wow, this is the last drive. This is the last iron shot,’” Tiffany said. “Standing on the green waiting for other people to putt, just looking out into the distance at the houses. It was nice.”

Tiffany finished his two rounds at the state tournament with a 166 (81-85), which was good enough to tie him for 64th place overall.

Senior Haley Houser’s goal was to reach state and earn a trip to the podium in her final year on the Stoughton girls track and field team.

She accomplished half of that goal with a shot put and discus title at sectionals, but nothing compares to achieving the goal of medaling at the WIAA Division 1 state meet Saturday at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, she said.

Houser threw for 39 feet, 5 inches to finish sixth in the shot put.

“My senior year didn’t start out quite the way I wanted to but the ending couldn’t have been any better,” Houser said. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Houser also had some unexpected success in the discus when she finished eighth Friday in the first day of the state tournament.

She threw for a distance of 115-5 to finish in the top 10.

Girls head coach Eric Benedict said the finish in the discus was a “pleasant surprise.”

The No. 15 Stoughton girls soccer team held its own last Thursday in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal at No. 2 Kettle Moraine before falling 3-0, head coach Dave Wermuth said.

The Vikings (5-11-1) came in as the underdog, but until a second goal was scored in the 37th minute by Olivia Hively, Stoughton felt like it could pull off the upset.

But in the end, Kettle Moraine was too much, Wermuth said.

“I think in the beginning of the first half, 20-25 minutes, we really held well,” he said in a phone interview. “They are just a really strong team and kept coming.”

The Vikings didn’t have a shot on goal, but the defense kept the score close, and senior goalie Stephanie Myszkowski finished with 14 saves to stop a potent Kettle Moraine offense.

 “The momentum shifted when Kettle Moraine got their second goal,” Wermuth said. “So I think it gave them a boost, and they started coming even harder at the goal.”

The Stoughton boys golf team had a rough start to their day Monday at the WIAA Division 1 state golf meet at University Ridge Golf Course, but none of the players let bad holes get into their heads as they finished the round strong.

The Vikings sit in fifth-place overall, 19 strokes behind Cedarburg, after shooting a 316 in round one, which still leaves the team in a position to compete for a state title Tuesday.

"It could have been better, but overall, we are still in it and that is a good thing," head coach Dave Taebel said.

Senior Anders Tiffany was a "prime example" of starting tough on the back nine, Taebel said, and coming back strong on the front. He was at 5-over par after two holes, but he was only four-over for the rest of the day to finish with an 81.

"I am proud of the way he hung in there," Taebel said. "His driver was a little crooked, but he kept battling."

Head coach Dave Taebel said the wait for the Stoughton boys golf team was a little nervewracking after entering the River Run Golf Course clubhouse with a 299 team score Tuesday at the WIAA Division 1 Sparta sectional.

The score might have been the best all season, but with Madison Memorial – ranked No. 1 in the Wisconsin High School Golf Coaches Association poll, No. 5 Verona, No. 6 Holmen and No. 9 Onalaska still on the course, no score was safe enough.

Despite the odds, however, the Vikings score held up for a second-place finish and a trip to state – three strokes behind sectional champion Onalaska – which has never happened in program history, Taebel said.

“We were just trying to stay loose on the putting green because we were wondering if there might be a playoff or anything like that,” he said. “We didn’t get too caught up in the atmosphere. We just kept riding it, and when that final score was posted, it was just a great feeling.”