West Allis NATIONALS Baseball

The West Allis Nationals and Kenosha Kings both had scoring chances on Sunday, but it was the West Allis Nationals that were able to capitalize on them as they pulled out a 4-3 win in the WSL Invitational Championship Game at Wildwood Baseball Park, Sheboygan, WI. In the bottom of the second, the West Allis Nationals grabbed the early lead, 2-0. Jake Kolacinski started the rally for the West Allis Nationals with a single. John Keane doubled, scoring Aaron Goecks and Kolacinski. The West Allis Nationals went up for good in the fourth, scoring two runs on a groundout by Jonah Meidl-Zahorodny and a single by Adam Karas. Tom Starck shut down Kenosha Kings while he was on the mound. Kenosha Kings managed just two hits off of Starck, who allowed no earned runs, walked one and struck out three during his three innings of work. One run in the top of the seventh helped Kenosha Kings close its deficit to 4-3. West Allis Nationals closer Aaron Woods closed the game out with a strike out of Cyle Hartwig. The Nationals finished the season on a 7 game winning streak to hit the 25 win mark for only the second time in franchise history.

Saturday was a rough outing for Cody Griebling, but the West Allis Nationals still managed to pull out an 8-7 victory over Sheboygan A's in seven innings at Wildwood Baseball Park, Sheboygan, WI. Griebling gave up six in five innings, and the bullpen surrendered one run but the offense banged out 13 to pick up the slack and secure the win for the West Allis Nationals. The West Allis Nationals jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first. A double by Richer, scoring Jonah Meidl-Zahorodny started the inning off. More runs came home for the West Allis Nationals when Richer and Pryal scored on a two-run single by Jake Kolacinski. Sheboygan A's answered the West Allis Nationals' top inning with four runs of its own in the first. Sheboygan A's scored on a solo home run by Harry Steldt, a two-run error, and an RBI single by Ben Folger. The West Allis Nationals recaptured the lead in the second inning, adding 5 more runs to jump to an 8-4 lead. Sheboygan added single tallies in the third, sixth, and seventh innings and had the winning run at second with two outs when Harry Steldt hit a liner at Brian Huntzinger in left field end the contest. Matt Richer racked up two RBIs on two hits for the West Allis Nationals. He doubled in the first inning and singled in the second inning. Jake Kolasinski added two hits and 4 RBI's. Curt Pryal reached base four times, including two hits, and knocked in a run. The Nationals conclude their 2016 season on Sunday in the Championship Game of the WSL Invitational Tournament. They'll host the Kenosha Kings in Sheboygan at 6pm. Kenosha downed the Sheboygan A's 2-1 to advance.

Curt Pryal got it done on the bump sparking the West Allis Nationals to a 4-1 victory in seven innings over Kenosha Kings on Thursday at Harvey Kuenn Field, West Allis, WI .He allowed one run over five innings. He struck out three, walked none and surrendered four hits. Pryal also went 1-1 with a walk. Aaron Woods held Kings hitless over two innings, allowed no earned runs, walked none and struck out three. The West Allis Nationals pushed one run across in the fourth inning to start the scoring. The West Allis Nationals scored on an RBI single by Brian Huntzinger. In the fifth inning, Kenosha Kings pushed across its only run of the day on an RBI single by Michael Szeszol. The West Allis Nationals stayed on top until the final out after taking the lead in the fifth, scoring two runs on a two-run single by Aaron Goecks.

The Nationals next play on Friday night against the Sheboygan A's at Kuenn Field in West Allis.  That game is a regular season rainout makeup and will complete the Nationals 30 game WSL regular season schedule.

After that, the Nats resume WSL Invitational play with another matchup vs. the A's.  That game will be at 4pm on Saturday in Sheboygan.

The West Allis Nationals ignored a time honored baseball tradition and played on Monday night vs the Giants in Oshkosh.  That's not the first - and won't be the last tradition dishonored by the team.  Nonetheless, they played.

As can be expected after a 90 mile drive, the team's offense was sluggish - not in the sense of power output, but more like fatigued.   However,the team did muster all of two hits and did score the game's only run in downing the Oshkosh Giants 1-0.

When you only score one run, it's helpful to have your pitcher throw a shutout.   So that's what Cody Griebling did - complete game, two infield hits, no walks and 9 strikeouts.

Adam Karas returned from the physically disabled list to knock a double and score the game's lone run.

After the game, impressed by his strong 0-3, reaching on an error and then promptly getting thrown out after convincing himself he is now a base-stealing threat, the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters signed Max Widmar to a one day contract with a team option.    In return the Nationals receive the piece of mind knowing they were beneficiaries of Widmar's impressive output.  In 13 WSL games, Widmar hit .487 with 3 HR's, 15 RBI's and a 1.463 OPS.   When informed that the signing will likely cost him WSL MVP consideration, Widmar replied, "I have good teammates on the Nationals, but my host family in Wisconsin Rapids are my friends."

All seriousness aside, good luck Max.   Say "Hi" to Froh, Jake, Putnam, Deano and the other Nationals who were successful in getting their one day contracts renewed.