The Yellowjacket baseball team entered play on Saturday, May 4 on the outside looking in on the WIAC playoffs. With four games left in the regular season, the Yellowjackets knew that they needed to at minimum three games and get a little bit of help from conference foes in order to qualify for the post-season derby.

Inclement weather forced the games, originally scheduled for Superior, to be moved to UW-Stout's home field. However, an early May snow storm forced the games to be moved once again, and Miller Stadium on the campus of UW-Whitewater was the venue for Saturday's doubleheader between the Yellowjackets and the Blue Devils, and each team came away with a win.

Game 1
Yellowjackets 8, Stout 6
Box Score

The Yellowjackets put a stop to a six-game losing skid with a victory in the opener on Saturday. Junior Travis Elwood (Ramsey, Minn./Anoka) got the start and was strong in the early going as the Yellowjackets grabbed the early lead.

In the bottom of the second Brady Flaherty (Balsam Lake, Wis./Unity) and Tom Fairbanks (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) started the game with back-to-back singles and both came around to score on errors and the Yellowjackets were off and running. A Tony Remund (Andover, Minn./Coon Rapids) double brought home another run and the Yellowjackets held a 3-0 edge.

But as quickly as they built the lead, the Blue Devils took it back with some timely hitting. Austin Littman had a two-run single while Kasey Kruse added an RBI single and Matt Guida brought a run home with a sacrifice fly and it was suddenly a 4-3 Blue Devil lead.

The Yellowjackets answered in the bottom of the inning TJ Evanson (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville North) doubled with one out and moved to third on a single by Flaherty. Fairbanks followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

In the bottom of the fourth the Yellowjackets took the lead for good. Remund led off with a double and following an out, Tyler Duex (Chippewa Falls, Wis./Chippewa Falls) walked and Robbie Veith (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. #Wyatt Soderquist drove in a run with a fielder's choice and Evanson followed with an RBI single and the Yellowjackets led 6-4.

Duex drove home another run with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth to stretch the lead to three.

Stout crawled back to within a run in their half of the sixth. Littman grounded out to bring home a run in and Charlie Meyer followed with an RBI single to shave the Yellowjacket lead to 7-6.

The Yellowjackets added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh. Fairbanks led off with a single and moved to second on Jeff Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn)'s ground out. Three hitters later Duex singled up the middle to score Fairbanks and give the Yellowjackets a two-run lead.

Alex Beers (Robbinsdale, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong), who came on in relief of Elwood in the fifth, got the Yellowjackets through the eighth before giving way to Dan Genrich (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West), who pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.

The Yellowjackets had 12 hits in the game, led by Evanson, Flaherty, Fairbanks and Duex who had two apiece. Remund scored three times and drove in a run while Duex scored once and drove in two.

Beers picked up the win after giving up two runs on five hits in three-and-a-third innings. He struck out one and improved his record to 3-2 on the year. Genrich picked up his first save.

Mitch LaVelle had a big game for the Blue Devils, going 4-for-5 and scoring twice. Littman and Cody Pechacek added two hits each for the Blue Devils.

Game 2
Stout 7, Yellowjackets 5
Box Score

Genrich finished off the first game and got the start in the second and was strong early, keeping the Blue Devils off the board through three. The Yellowjackets opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when Veith led off with a single and came around to score on a Soderquist single and ensuing error to make it 1-0.

In the top of the fourth Santiago Morales led off with a double and, with two outs, came around to score on Guida's double to tie the game. In the bottom of the inning Sam Holden (Spooner, Wis./Spooner) doubled, bringing home Miller who had led off the inning with a single to push the Yellowjackets back ahead.

Both teams went scoreless in the fifth and Stout jumped back ahead in the sixth when Guida and Beau Jernberg had RBI singles, making 3-2.

Once again, the Yellowjackets answered in the bottom of the inning to forge back ahead. With two outs and a runner on, Veith doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Holden scored on an infield single to tie it, then Evanson and Flaherty were hit on consecutive pitches to give the Yellowjackets a 4-3 edge.

Stout pulled ahead for good in the top of the seventh, scoring three times. With two runners in scoring position and one out, Morales brought a run in to tie the game. Meyer and Pechachek followed with RBI singles and the Blue Devil lead was two.

The Yellowjackets scratched out another run in the bottom of the inning with a two-out rally. Holden and Duex had back-to-back singles and Veith doubled, plating Holden to again make it a one-run game.

Stout got that run back in the ninth, however, on another RBI hit from Morales to make the final score 7-5.

The Yellowjackets pouned out 16 hits in the game, led by Holden and Veith who each had three. All nine starters had at least one hit. Holden Veith each also scored a pair of runs.

LaVelle and Morales each went 3-for-5 in the game. LaVelle scored twice and Morales and Guida each had two RBI.

Genrich pitched six-and-a-third and took the loss. Cody Johnson (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) finished the game on the mound for the Yellowjackets.

The Yellowjackets (15-22, 8-14 WIAC) will close out their regular season on Sunday, May 5 when they play two more games with UW-Stout and Miller Stadium in Whitewater. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.