West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

League play in the Milwaukee Independent Wood Bat League began Saturday night. To kick off the inaugural campaign, schedule makers pitted the Cubs and Nationals, contestants in last year's championship series, and titans of the past decade. Combined, the teams have won 9 of the past 10 Milwaukee County grand championships. The results were somewhat unexpected. After struggling to score runs in 3 of 4 games last weekend, the Nationals offense exploded. When the the dust (literally) cleared, the Nationals had swept the Cubs by scores of 12-5 and 11-6. The Nationals jumped to an early 4-0 lead in the opener. Trevor Koepp put the team on the board with an RBI single in the first. After Joe Reisinger reached on an error, Tom Donovan smoked a 2 run double down the right field line. Reisinger later scored on a past ball. The Cubs, however, were unfazed. They chipped away with runs in the third and fifth innings before taking a 5-4 lead with a three run sixth. That lead was short lived. Tom Donovan led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, and after consecutive walks to Brian Gibson and Tim Spata, Mike Wajerski tied the score on a sacrifice fly. A Jake Paige RBI single gave the team the lead and the rout was on. Tim Ustruck picked up his first Nationals victory in relief of Jim Dettman. Ustruck came on in the sixth to douse a rally and put the Cubs down in order in the seventh. Trevor Koepp, and Tom Donovan led the offense with two hits each. Donovan added three RBI's. Game two began quite differently. After the Nationals tallied two on RBI singles from Koepp and James Herkowski, the Cubs roared back to take a 6 - 2 lead after one inning. Joe Kissler started on the mound and struggled to find his groove, but two infield errors proved devastating. A resilient bunch, the Nationals responded immediately. Koepp and Herkowski knocked in runs in the second to bring the team back within two at 6-4. The team followed with 4 in the third and 3 in the fourth and the turnaround was complete. Kissler settled in after a rocky first inning, holding the Cubs scoreless through six. Pat Bovee made his debut for the Nationals in the seventh, pitching a scoreless inning with a strikeout, walk, and one hit. Offensive stars in game two included Jake Paige, who contributed three hits and three runs, James Herkowski with three hits and three RBI, Trevor Koepp, with three hits and four RBI, and Mike Wajerski, with three safeties. Next up for the Nats will be McGuire's Cats Saturday May 31 at Zirkel Field in McCarty Park.