Verona still the team to beat

Home Talent League

Western Section

Verona won 7-1 at Wiota on Sunday to clinch home field advantage and a first round buy in the playoffs. Essentially, they force Wiota or Monroe, the two teams with a chance to score the big upset, to come to Verona.

Ben Wallace looked fantastic on the road yesterday. He was locating well, and the off-speed pitches kept Wiota off balance. Verona has now defeated the Indians twice by a combined score of 19-2.

Southeast Section

Fort Atkinson and Dan Dean had another great showing with an 11-1 win, and they are the best team in the section at the moment. Utica lost another game, and Stoughton fell to McFarland. Suddenly, the teams in the West Division are struggling to close the season.

With Utica and Stoughton playing Fort Atkinson next weekend, McFarland may have the easiest schedule to claim the division. They are 1½ games back in second place.

Northern Section

Middleton clinched first place in the East Division on the Northern section. The other three spots are still up for grabs. In the West, Reedsburg held on for a big 10-9 win, and Sauk Prairie continued to roll forward.

With Reedsburg and Sauk Prairie facing off in the final season game on Aug. 1, the game is very important. However, they are in the playoffs at the moment. The other two spots are between Plain, Cazenovia and Mazomanie with neither team close to finishing at .500.

Eastern Section

It is still a free-for-all at the top of the section. Sun Prairie won and moved into second place behind DeForest who came closer to showing they deserve the top with a 6-0 win over Waterloo. Cottage Grove was upset, however, and they fell down to a tie for third with Monona.

Cottage Grove still has a great chance to win with three games against the three teams tied or ahead of them in their final four. Sun Prairie will have a big game against Lodi next week to try and continue their climb.

Verona shows off offense in Western Section; East a free-for-all

Home Talent League

Western Section

Verona is dominating with two impressive victories, both by 10 runs, over Dodgeville and Wiota. The Cavaliers are hitting and pitching well, and they have shown they can beat everyone.

The only team that beat them, Monroe, lost to Wiota 3-0 on Sunday. At the moment, Wiota is still in second, but Verona is catching stride at the right time.

Southeast Section

Utica and Fort Atkinson are the teams to beat in this section, and they both had some nice wins on the weekend. Utica defeated McFarland for the second time, and they are 9-1 ahead of Stoughton.

Kyle Bates and Matt Ellingson both had wins, and they are on a tough staff for any team. Fort Atkinson edged Whitewater with good pitching by Dan Dean. It’s too bad the game between Utica and Fort Atkisnon was rained out last week, because it would have been the two best teams to see who gets bragging rights.

Northern Section

The three-way tie for first in the East Division came to an end with a big win by Middleton over Cross Plains. Ashton also won, and the East is anyone’s still.

The West Division saw the two top teams continue their dominance. Sauk Prairie and Reedsburg remain No. 1 and No. 2, and they will face each other on the last game of the season. If they continue on this path, they should be battling for first place.

Eastern Section

The section has many teams in the mix, but the big winners of the weekend were Lodi and Deforest who both had big wins over their rivals. Lodi is in first place, but the other teams can easily finish first.

The section will come down to the final few weeks, but Lodi is the team to beat at the moment. The one run win over Sun Prairie was huge with them on their heels.

Home Talent Update: Many games washed out

A handful of Home Talent League baseball games were rained out in the South Central portion of the state. Among those was matchup between Division leaders Fort Atkinson and Utica.

Fort Atkinson, who leads the East Division of the Southeast Section, was scheduled to travel to Utica, the Southeast Section West Division leaders. However, wet weather Saturday night left Utica Park’s field unplayable. A make-up date has yet to be scheduled.

Jefferson was scheduled to travel to Stoughton, but that too was called off. Jefferson was the Consolation champion during the 30^th Annual Fort Atkinson Generals’ Tournament and the Merchants took first place. Their game will be made up at a later time.

McFarland and Whitewater as well as Orfordville and Lake Mills were also rained out in the Southeast Section.

Albion blanked Deerfield, 10-0, to get back to .500 in the standings while Evansville held off Cambridge, 2-1.

In the Eastern Section, only one game was able to be played.

With an opportunity to stay in first place, Cottage Grove lost a high scoring affair to Rio. The Firemen topped Cottage Grove, 12-7, bumping CG down to 7-2 – half a game back of DeForest and Sun Prairie.

As the weather dries up, many of these make up games will have strong affects on the final standings.

Standings June 28

Southeast

East Division

Fort Atkinson 8-1

Lake Mills 4-5

Cambridge 3-6

Jefferson 3-6

Whitewater 3-6

Deerfield 2-7

West Division

Utica 7-1

McFarland 6-3

Stoughton 6-3

Albion 5-5

Evansville 4-5

Orfordville 3-6

Eastern

DeForest 8-2

Sun Prairie 8-2

Cottage Grove 7-2

Monona 7-2

Lodi 7-4

Rio 5-5

Marshall 3-7

Waterloo 3-8

Poynette 2-8

Columbus 0-10

Western

Verona 9-1

Wiota 7-1

Monroe 8-2

Argyle 5-3

Platteville 5-4

Ridgeway 4-6

Dodgeville 4-6

Hollandale 3-8

New Glarus 1-7

Blanchardville 0-8

Northern

East Division

Middleton 8-2

Cross Plaines 7-2

Ashton 6-3

Black Earth 6-3

Waunakee 4-6

Pine Bluff 1-8

West Division

Sauk Prairie 8-2

Reedsburg 7-2

Plain 4-6

Cazenovia 2-7

Mazomanie 2-7

Richland Center 2-8

Blackhawk baseball defies odds to reach State, fall to LaFollette

Josh has been busy covering the Fort Atkinson High School baseball team's incredible run to the WIAA Division 1 State Tournament.
Check out stories he wrote for the Daily Union about their run to the tourney and their quarterfinal match up.

State matchup with Madison LaFollete

State run

Bonus Prep Thursday coverage!

Just in case you need more prep feature coverage, Josh wrote an article for the Daily Union about Fort Atkinson pitcher Emilie Bakken and her grandfather/assistant coach Paul Olson enjoying their final season of softball together.

Click here to check it out.

Prep Talk Saturday Episode 2: Outdoor Badger championships

Southern Badger far from decided in boy's basketball.

The Southern Badger boy’s basketball season is heating up as it comes down to the final few games. Monroe crushed Fort Atkinson to move a half game in first at 9-2 ahead of Madison Edgewood, who was upset by Oregon to fall to 9-3. The loss by Edgewood did more than drop them out of first, however. It opened the door for another school to sneak into the race, Stoughton.

In what turned into one of the most entertaining games of the night, Stoughton edged Monona Grove 50-48 to move to 8-3 in the conference. However, the Silver Eagles believe Stoughton survived. The Vikings led by 16 points midway through the third quarter, and they were cruising to a win.

When it comes to closing basketball games, the free throw-line becomes important. Stoughton let the Silver Eagles get back into the game by only shooting seven of 19 from the line in the fourth quarter. On the other end, Monona Grove hit 11 of 13 from the line. The Vikings were now in a battle, and even though they led the entire game, the Silver Eagles had the ball with less than five seconds to go and were down two.

Jake Retzlaff drove the lane and came to within five-feet of the basket. He put the shot up, but something was wrong. Tom Speth, who led the team with 13 points, put his hands up and blocked the shot to end the game. A sigh of relief from the Viking faithful followed.

The way they won becomes irrelevant. They won, and they closed the gap in the conference with the season winding down. They have a slim chance of earning a share of the title, but it is a chance nonetheless. The Vikings will play on, and the conference has to wait a few more days to see what team will be the champion.