West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The Nationals began a successful defense of their County Title Saturday night defeating a strong Milwaukee Angels squad by scores of 4-3 and 16-6. The Nationals jumped to a 2-0 lead in game one on a two-run homer by Chris Marks. Not to be outdone, the pesky Angels matched the score in the bottom of the first inning. With both pitchers settling in, further runs were more difficult to come by. Mike Wajerski created a run in the third after singling to left field. Wajerski enticed an errant pickoff throw to take second and stole third. Alex Franson's sacrifice fly then gave the Nats a 3-2 lead. Again, however, the Angels answered by adding a tally of their own to tie the score at 3. Chris Marks responded in the fourth. Marks hit a leadoff triple and scored on a wild pitch to give the Nationals a 4-3 lead. Jim Dettman made the best of his run support, gaining the victory. A seventh inning, two out rally was thwarted when Jake Paige fielded a ball deep in the hole at short and threw out a baserunner at third to end the game. Game two came a bit easier to the Nationals as the offense provided a 5-1 cushion after two innings. Jake Paige and Trevor Koepp each contributed four hits in the contest while Mike Wajerski added four runs and an important 3 run homer which gave the team an insurmountable 4-1 lead. Koepp finished the game with a team high 7 RBIs. The Nationals next face the winner of a Cubs/King Pins elimination game in the County Championship next Saturday night at Zirkel Field. Game one of the best-of-three series begins at 6PM.