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The Stevens Point Pacelli baseball team was full of aggressive baserunners, and Rickaway, an Aquinas High School left-hander, needed to hammer home the fact that he knew that.
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Aquinas' Zach Rickaway tags out Pacelli's Dan Herzog in a rundown in the sixth inning.
Erik Daily |
So the junior threw to first base regularly the few times the Cardinals were able to put a runner on first base.
In the sixth inning, he walked the first two batters he faced. It could have been trouble. But Rickaway picked off both of them to help secure a 3-1 victory over Pacelli in a WIAA Division 3 state semifinal.
“We told Zach to just throw over there quite a bit,” Aquinas coach Scott Bagniefski said. “He may not pick them off, but it would show them that we would throw to the bases.
“Fortunately, he caught a couple kids off balance.”
As a result the Blugolds (19-7) have a championship date with Eau Claire Regis (16-7) at noon today. Aquinas will be shooting for its first state baseball championship since winning as a WISAA school in 1987 after ending Pacelli’s winning streak at 10 games.
Rickaway’s first victim was Dan Herzog, who took off for second base as Rickaway picked up his right leg to deliver a pitch. Rickaway instead fired behind him and wound up
finishing off the rundown by making the tag.
Travis Stroik then drew a walk and, not learning from what had just happened, got himself a bit of a lead off the bag. Rickaway then caught Stroik leaning to his right, and Aquinas first baseman Matt Kachel made the easy tag.
The Cardinals (21-3) had 10 batters reach first base against Rickaway and reliever Ryan Fahey. Four of them were thrown out on the bases. Besides Rickaway’s two pickoffs, catcher Sam Pederson threw out one batter trying to steal and another trying to advance after reaching on an error.
“I was just throwing over there in case they were thinking about (stealing),” said Rickaway, who struck out nine, walked three and allowed one earned run over six innings. “I just got them when they were.”
Aquinas scored all of its runs on one play in the fourth inning.
Walks to Corey Geary, Fahey and Cody Rickaway loaded the bases with one out for Kachel, who struck out in his first at-bat.
This time, Kachel ripped a 1-1 pitch to right field to clear the bases. Geary and Fahey scored on the hit, and Rickaway was awarded home when the throw to the plate skipped by catcher Kyle Gramowski and into the Pacelli dugout.
“That was a dream come true because you don’t get that opportunity more than once in a lifetime,” Kachel said of batting with the bases loaded in a tied game at the state tournament. “I went up there with confidence, and he threw me a fastball down the middle. I just pulled it.”
It was one of three hits Aquinas managed against Pacelli’s Herzog, who struck out five and walked four. Rickaway said the hit not only gave his team the lead, but that it helped him from a pitching standpoint.
“It’s tough pitching when it’s zero-zero,” Rickaway said. “If you make one mistake, it could be your season, so Kachel bring in those three runs was huge because runs aren’t easy to get here.”
Todd Sommerfeldt can be reached at (608) 791-8208 or todd.sommerfeldt@lee.net
