The Lake Geneva Badger baseball team went down to the wire in extra-innings against Mukwonago with stellar pitching by Sam Polyock in their WIAA Division 1 Regional game, but a late rally by Indians in the eighth was all it took, holding on for a 3-0 victory to end the Badger season.
The Badgers close out the season with a 14-13 overall record.
"It was a great game," Badger head co-coach Beau Roddy said. "It was electric, it was a playoff atmosphere, and our guys were focused the entire time. But we just didn't put the ball in play enough."
It was a pitcher's duel throughout the game on the mound between Polyock and Mukwonago's Cael Bertrandt. Polyock gave up a single in the first, second, and third innings, but was able to get out of the jams and strand the runners each time. Despite a couple walks and one more hit allowed in his 6/1/3 innings of work, he was outstanding on the hill. He struck out seven, walked two, gave up four hits, and didn't allow one run to cross home plate.
However, Bertandt for Mukwonago went toe-to-toe on the mound with Polyock. He finished with 10 strikeouts and didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning. He finishes the year as the new Badger baseball single-season ERA (Earned Run Average) leader with a .724.
While Badger was only able to muster three baserunners, all by way of a walk prior to the sixth, Badger freshman Matt O'Grady, the sixth ranked High School baseball prospect in the state in the 2026 class, according to PBR Wisconsin, was able get the first hit of the game.
O'Grady lined one to left center in between the left and centerfielder and traveled all the way to the wall for an easy double. But with the game all tied up at 0-0 and each team scraping for runs, he tried for third and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
Stewart came in for Polyock in relief and immediately did his job. He struck out the first batter, walked the second one, but got the next two to fly out and push the game to extra-innings, their second extra-inning game with Mukwonago on the season, winning the first game on a walk-off double by Wade Blakeley back on April 25.
In the bottom of the seventh, it began to look like déjà vu all over again for Badger, with a baserunner just 60 feet away from another walk-off win. Sophomore Zach Walton led off the bottom half of the inning with an infield single to shortstop, their second hit of the game. After Bertrandt got out the next two batters, Stewart and sophomore Ryan McCarthy each walked to load the bases with two outs. But just as the Mukwonago pitcher was doing all game, he got the final batter to strike out, getting out of the jam and give his offense another shot.
One more shot was all Mukwonago needed, tallying three runs on an RBI single by Brandon Burge and a two-run single from Walker Powers to ultimately put an end to the "successful" 2023 Badger baseball season.
"It came down to one play and one play changed that game," Badger co-head coach Michael Ploch said. "That's how it has been for so many games against some of the top teams in our state. We have been trying to find a way to win that big moment, it just didn't happen for us this time. But I'm confident we'll get there next year. We keep building every year and the next one is going to be even better."
This the first season with a winning record for Badger baseball in over 10 years.
"This was a huge success," Roddy said. "We're a very young team playing senior heavy teams and competing. The future is very bright and we're going to work even harder in the offseason."
Badger will only have to replace three seniors next year, and while he's excited for the future of Badger baseball, he gives all the credit to those seniors Crete Slattery, Jimmy Athens and Storm Linn for where this team is today.
"When the seniors came into this program, we were 3-17," Ploch said. "Two years later, we have a winning record. They have done so much to help turn this program around. We have gotten better every year and we will continue to get better next year."
In their final talk to the team at the conclusion of the game, Roddy noted that it wasn't even about the game and what happened, it was about their incredible effort and the bright future ahead.
"We lost a good game, but our message to them was how proud we are of how hard they worked, and how excited we are for the future," Roddy said.
The 2023 season may have come to a close and earlier than they had hoped, Ploch couldn't be prouder of the group of the 16 student-athletes who made up the 2023 Lake Geneva Badger baseball team.
"They did literally everything we asked," he said. "We pushed them in practice more and more every single day and they just came back for more and wanting to get better. It's such a good group, we're family, and couldn't have asked for any more than what they did."