West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The battle of the top two teams in the American Division of the Milwaukee Independent Wood Bat League was worth the wait. Though the two teams had never faced off before, an instant rivalry was formed. Emotions and chatter ran high as the teams split their Saturday evening DH at Simmons Field in Milwaukee. The Athletics struck first in game one, taking advantage of uncharacteristic wildness from Nationals starting pitcher, Jim Dettman. Walks and errors allowed the Athletics to jump to a 3-0 lead in the second. This proved to be more than enough offense on this occasion as the Athletics' starting pitcher effectively mixed a plus fastball, curveball, and forkball. The Nationals broke through for their only run of the contest in the sixth. After Joe Reisinger reached on a fielders choice, Tom Donovan drove a double over the left fielder's head for the home town team's only RBI. Final score of game one was 7-1. The Nationals continued their sloppy play to start game two, allowing two Athletics runs to score on wild pitches in falling behind 3-1. This time, however, the Nationals were able to summon up some offense. When the dust settled, the Nationals were 9-4 victors. Next up for the Nationals are the Milwaukee Angels. The two teams met last season for the first time in the county semifinals with the Nationals prevailing 4-3 and 15-8.