The Lake Superior Sea Dogs amateur baseball team finished with a split in district action last weekend in Hayward as part of the 73rd annual Wisconsin Baseball Association playoffs.
The second-seeded Sea Dogs opened play in Pool 2 with a 5-2 loss Saturday to the fifth-seeded Eau Claire Bears. Lake Superior struck first when Conner Fonger scored on Alex Busick’s RBI single before Eau Claire came back to tie it with a run in the fifth. Eau Claire took control with two runs in the sixth and another in the seventh. Busick scored again on John Sopiwnik’s RBI in the seventh to trim the deficit to 4-2 before the Bears tacked on an insurance run in the ninth for the final 5-2 margin.
Chevy Tollefson allowed two runs on nine hits in seven innings to get the win, while Tyler Gray closed it out to get the save. Josh Halling paced the Bears’ offense with three hits and two runs.
Jake Lewis took the loss despite going the distance for the Sea Dogs, allowing four earned runs on 14 hits, with five strikeouts, three walks and one hit batter.
The Sea Dogs bounced back with an 8-4 victory over the third-seeded Whittesey Reds later in the day Saturday.
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Trailing 4-0, the Sea Dogs rallied with five runs in the seventh, keyed by Justin Sedin’s three-run double, before adding three more in the eighth. Fonger tossed five shutout innings of relief to get the win, with six hits, two strikeouts and a walk, while Sedin added a sacrifice fly in the eighth for his fourth RBI of the game.
Isaac Fugere added two hits, including a double, and two runs for Lake Superior, which finished the season 10-3.
This was the first year the league used a pool-play format after previously using single-elimination.
Eau Claire, which defeated Whittlesey 13-1 Sunday in seven innings to go 2-0 in pool play, advances to this weekend’s WBA State Championship Tournament in Marshfield and Merrill, Wisconsin.
