MADISON
The pressure of performing on a big stage got the best of the Milton High softball team Thursday morning.
Playing at the WIAA state tournament for the first time in 30 years—against a Sun Prairie team that was making its fifth straight appearance—the Red Hawks committed seven errors en route to a 5-0 loss in a Division 1 state quarterfinal at Goodman Field.
Second-seeded Sun Prairie (26-1) advanced and will play third-seeded Oak Creek (22-3) in a state semifinal game Friday night for a berth in Saturday’s final against Kaukauna or Superior.
Seventh-seeded Milton finished 22-9.
In falling to 0-3 all time in state tournament games, Milton managed only two hits off Sun Prairie sophomore right-hander Tayler Baker and dug itself an early hole with four errors in the second inning that led to four Sun Prairie runs.
“You can’t give a team like Sun Prairie extra outs and we did just that,†Milton coach Kurt Mussey said. “Our defense and Gwen’s (Baker) pitching got us here. We had to keep playing the same defense that we had all tournament to have a chance.
“I don’t know if it was nerves or what, and it might’ve been, but we just did a lot things defensively those first couple of innings that were very uncharacteristic of us.â€
The miscues began immediately for the Red Hawks in the bottom of the first inning, but Gwen Baker worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam with three consecutive strikeouts. Sun Prairie loaded the bases on a leadoff single and back-to-back Milton errors.
But things fell apart for the Red Hawks in the second inning as Sun Prairie scored four times on just two hits.
Four Milton errors opened the floodgates. Grace Kramschuster was originally credited with an inside-the-park home run to lead off the inning, but likely should’ve been given a single and a three-base error as the ball skipped under the glove of the Milton right fielder and rolled all the way to the fence.
Isabel Royle followed with an RBI triple to the gap in left-center, and just like that is was 2-0. Three more Milton errors led to the final two runs—leaving the Red Hawks in deep trouble facing a pitcher of the caliber of Tayler Baker.
Tayler Baker finished with 13 strikeouts and allowed only three baserunners on two singles and a hit batter. Milton did not get a runner past first base.
Gwen Baker threw well enough to keep her team in the game, but her defense let her down. The sophomore right-hander struck out seven and allowed only two earned runs. The earned runs were the only ones she allowed in four postseason games.
“They’re just a really solid team,†Gwen Baker said of Sun Prairie. “We knew that coming in, but they were probably even better than we thought. They really don’t have a weakness on that team.
“We were underdogs coming in and just wanted to put up a fight. Things just didn’t go our way.â€
SUN PRAIRIE 5, MILTON 0
Milton 000 000 0 — 0 2 7
Sun Prairie 040 100 x — 5 7 0
Leading hitters—M: Grace Schnell 1x3, Ashley Vanderhei 1x3; SP: Kennedy Schaefer 2x3, Grace Kramschuster 2x3 (RBI), Isabel Royle 1x3 (3B), Chloe Knoerschild 1x4, Sophia Royle 1x4 (RBI).
Pitchers (ip-h-r-er-so-bb)—M: Gwen Baker (L, 6-7-5-2-7-0); SP: Tayler Baker (W, 7-2-0-0-13-0).
