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MARSHFIELD – Blair-Taylor rallied from three runs down to score four in the top of the seventh inning and pulled off a 5-4 victory over Marshfield Columbus Catholic in a WIAA Division 4 baseball regional semifinal matchup on Tuesday at Jack Hackman Field.
The No. 5 seed Blair-Taylor (13-10) moves on to a D-4 regional final at No. 1 seed Eleva-Strum (22-1) on Wednesday. The fourth-seeded Dons finish their season with a 16-8 record.
Columbus Catholic, which had reached the state tournament for the first time ever a year ago, took an early lead with a two-run bottom of the first.
Grant Olson and Mac Konieczny delivered back-to-back RBI singles to give the Dons a quick lead.
After Blair-Taylor cut the lead in half with a run in the fifth, the Dons put up two runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an error and an RBI single by Cy Becker.
Blake Jakobi rolled through the first six innings on the mound for Columbus Catholic, striking out eight and allowing just five hits and one walk. As his pitch count neared 100, he was replaced by Emmitt Konieczny to start the seventh.
Blair-Taylor used three walks, two errors, a hit batter and needed just two hits to score four times to take the lead before Konieczny struck out the final two batters.
The Dons went down in order in the bottom of the frame and saw their season come to an end.
Becker, Jakobi and Brandon Lang each had two hits for the Dons.
Click here to view the statewide WIAA regional semifinal scoreboard and regional finals schedule.
Wildcats 5, Dons 4
Blair-Taylor 000 010 4 – 5 7 1
Columbus Catholic 200 002 0 – 4 9 3
WP: Oldendorf. LP: Emmitt Konieczny.
SO: Shramek (5 1/3 inn.) 9, Oldendorf (1 2/3 inn.) 2; Blake Jakobi (6 inn.) 8, E. Konieczny (1 inn.) 3. BB: Shramek 4, Oldendorf 0; Jakobi 1, E. Konieczny 3.
Top hitters: BT, Shramek 3×4, 2B, 2 runs; Nitek 2×4, RBI. CC, Jakobi 2×4, run; Cy Becker 2×2, RBI; Brandon Lang 2×3, 2B, run.
Records: Blair-Taylor 13-10; Columbus Catholic 16-8.