by Max Mercy
RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- After four hours and 11 minutes over 17 innings, the Everest Merchants defeated the Duluth-Superior Dukes, 5-4, in the first round of the 67th annual Wisconsin Baseball Association Playoffs at First National Bank of River Falls Field on Saturday.
John Dzurka scored on Joe Woksmonski's sacrifice fly in the top of the 17th inning to break a 4-4 tie that had been in place since the eighth inning. Dzurka singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second base on Koleman Schilling's sacrifice bunt. Dzurka was then awarded third base on an obstruction call before Woksmonski's run-scoring fly out.
In the eighth, the Dukes rallied for two runs to knot the score. Cody Dolsen singled to lead off the inning and was lifted for pinch runner Peyton Flanders. Flanders was safe at second when Trenton Moe reached on a fielder's choice error. Kevin Hendrickx pushed the runners over one base each with a sacrifice bunt for the first out. Jimmy Merling grounded out to the right side for an RBI, scoring Flanders and moving Moe to third. Travis Bartlett then singled past a diving shortstop to plate Moe. It was Bartlett's team-record 20th RBI of the season. The previous team single-season record for RBI was 16, set by Merling in 2014.
Winning pitcher Tom Fish worked seven and two-thirds innings of shutout relief. He allowed four hits and two walks, both intentional, and had five strikeouts. Josh Neilson was Everest's starter. He allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in seven and two-thirds innings. Heinrich Waldor relived Neilson in the eighth after Bartlett's single. Waldor pitched one and one-third innings and allowed no runs and no hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
Bob Tyndall of the Ashland Merchants, the Dukes' playoff roster's drafted player, was the losing pitcher. Tyndall relieved starter Jake Lewis after Schilling singled to lead off the 12th inning. Tyndall allowed one run on five hits and no walks with four strikeouts in six innings. Lewis pitched the first 11 innings. He retired nine batters in a row -- four of the last five via strikeouts -- before surrendering Schilling's hit. Lewis's line was four runs (two earned) on 11 hits and one walk with 12 strikeouts. Lewis finished the season with a 2-2 W-L mark and an ERA of 2.77. He had 85 strikeouts in 65 innings pitched, and led the team in both categories. He missed the team's single-season strikeout record of 86, set by Chris Vendela in 2011, by one.
Everest was leading 3-0 after four and a half innings before Duluth-Superior scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to get back in the game. The Dukes had four hits in the inning, including Moe's RBI single. They had just one hit in the first four frames.
For Everest, Schilling was 3-for-5 with a run, Matt Witter was 3-for-8 with two doubles and an RBI, and Ryan Hubacek, Tom Froom, and Dzurka were each 2-for-7. Hubacek had an RBI double in the fifth, and Froom's RBI single with two outs in the top of the eighth gave Everest a 4-2 lead.
Although Bartlett and Tyndall hit one-out doubles in the 11th and 16th, respectively, it was the 12th inning that was the Dukes' best chance to win the game. Bob Baxton led off the inning with a single and he took second base on Flanders's sacrifice bunt. Moe was intentionally walked and Hendrickx beat out an infield single in a foot race with the first baseman to load the bases with one out and Merling and Bartlett, the Dukes' top hitters, due up. Merling hit a shallow fly out to center, and Bartlett struck out on a 3-2 count after several foul balls.
Defense kept the Dukes' hopes alive throughout the game, as outfielders Baxton, Merling, and Flanders each made diving catches to the delight of the crowd and the game's webcast announcers (view the game here).
Baxton was 3-for-7 with a run to lead the Dukes. Bartlett, Dolsen, and Corey Pavlich had two hits apiece.
The Dukes finish the season with an overall record of 14-10, the first overall winning record in the club's nine-season history. The Dukes captured their first Upper 13 League title with an 11-1 record in league play. They qualified for the WBA Playoffs for the fourth year in a row -- 35-13 in league play since 2012 -- and fifth overall since the team began as the Proctor Padres in 2007.
Everest advances to face the host River Falls Fighting Fish on Sunday at noon. River Falls defeated the Twin Ports North Stars, 10-0, in eight innings on Friday night to begin the tournament. Two teams from each of the semifinals' four sites, Coon Valley, Haugen, Rib Lake, and River Falls, meet at Haugen next weekend for the playoffs finals.