The Albion Tigers won their final regular season game on Tuesday night, an 8-3 Eastern Night League decision at Lake Mills. They will now turn their attention to Sunday, when they will travel to Fort Atkinson for a Southeast Section semi-final against the Generals.
After Lake Mills took an early 3-0 lead, Albion was able to touch Grays starter Drew Dunkleberger in the third. Four straight walks to Kaleb Kruckenberg, Austin Mades, Lucas Gregory, and Cullen Oren forced in the first run, and an RBI from Brennan Deegan pushed across the second run. Cameren Wileman then delivered a two-run single into center to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead that they would not relinquish.
Cullen Oren's two-run triple in the fourth made it 6-3, and later RBIs from Oren and Josh Eastman provided the final tallies for Albion. On the mound, Bryant Schulte scattered eight hits and allowed two runs in six innings for the win. Gregory threw a perfect seventh to finish up the job for the Tigers.
The Albion Tigers earned a trip back to the Southeast Section semi-finals with a 17-5 win over Deerfield to wrap up the regular season with an 11-5 record. Defending champion Albion will travel to Fort Atkinson next Sunday for a 1pm start at Jones Park.
On Saturday, Deerfield took an early 4-0 lead and held it until the Albion bats finally came alive in the third inning. A leadoff walk to Lars Olstad was followed by consecutive hits by Aaron Laskowski, Tyler Oren, Josh Eastman, and Brennan Deegan. Jesse Appel chipped in an RBI single as well to give Albion a 5-4 lead. An RBI from Eastman in the fourth made it 6-4, and then a nine-run fifth put the game out of reach. A string of six consecutive hits was highlighted by extra-base hits from Olstad, Laskowski, and Eastman before Lucas Gregory delivered a bases-loaded double to push the lead to 15-5.
Jake Taylor threw six innings to earn his fifth win on the year. Taylor struck out eight and allowed no earned runs on four hits.
The Albion Tigers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and then held on for a 7-6 win against the Johnson Creek Pioneers Wednesday night, providing an opportunity for rookie Charlie Hatlen to get his first win for Albion. Hatlen struck out six over five innings, allowed no walks and no earned runs, and mixed in a couple pickoffs at first base in his first start as a Tiger. He was relieved by Cullen Oren, who struck out five over the last two innings to finish off the Pioneers.
The Tiger offense was active early before quieting down through the middle of the game. RBI hits from Josh Eastman, Jake Zeimet, and Jake Taylor made the lead 3-0 in the first inning. Albion doubled their lead in the second when Cole Demrow, Evan Deegan, and Hatlen each singled and scored, aided by a Bryant Schulte RBI groundout. Despite loading the bases in the fifth, Albion would not score again until the seventh, when Brennan Deegan drove home his brother Evan with a single into rightfield. The Pioneers would rally and make it 7-6 in the bottom half, but Cullen Oren recorded a strikeout with the winning run on second base to ice Johnson Creek.