Tyler Walsh pulled another late shift Monday night for West Bend East.
One week after his walk-off single capped a stunning 8-7 comeback win over Slinger in eight innings, Walsh struck late again. His two-out single in the top of the 10th completed another big comeback for the Suns, who escaped with a 9-8 North Shore Conference baseball win over arch-rival West Bend West.
By rallying from a 5-0 hole after an inning, East (10-3, 5-2 NSC) stayed within two games of unbeaten Hartford Union (10-0, 70), which brings its No. 6 ranking in Division 1 by the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association to Regner Park Wednesday. In the process, the Suns denied the Spartans (1-7, 0-7) their first league win.
West starter Brody Renk was able to strand Mason Roell after his two-out triple in the top of the first. Then the Spartans pounced on a pair of errors, a pair of hit batters by East starter Victor Gurrola and capped the startling five run frame with an RBI triple from Mason Micksch.
East got a pair of runs in the third when Cutler Schmidt led off with a double and Kaleb Schepp singled him in. Schepp swiped second and reached third on a passed ball before Roell plated him with a sacrifice fly.
Gurrola worked around a pair of singles in the third when East cut down runners at the plate on consecutive contact plays. In the fourth, three straight hits led to a West run as Chase Abresch had an RBI single.
Gurrola left mid-count while facing Dieter Pommer later in the inning. Blake Twito came on in relief and got two strikeouts ,but a wild pitch enabled the Spartans to restore their five-run advantage.
East would then respond with a five-spot in the fifth to pull even, starting with Schmidt reaching on an error. West reliever Emmitt Selin would hit a batter and walk another before Twito drove in two with a hit and Ben Hesse鈥檚 two out, two-run double got the Suns within a run.
Hunter Herbst singled to right for an RBI to knot the game at seven. West regained the lead in the bottom of the inning when Connor Wick got plunked to start the inning.
Wick stole second and scored on Cullen Roell鈥檚 RBI single. East was able to escape further damage when Roell was hung out to dry on a failed suicide squeeze.
Schepp and Roell singled to start the East sixth. Twito hit a sacrifice fly to center to forge another stalemate.
West got a runner to third base in the sixth and seventh innings but could not cash in against Mason Roell, who worked the final five innings for the win. Schmidt drew a leadoff walk in the eighth and when West tried to pick him off of first, he wisely bolted for second.
He then tried to press his luck on a grounder to short and was cut down at third by the Spartans. He fared better after his one-out walk in the 10th, when he stole second and scored the decider when Walsh singled off Pommer.
West visits Slinger Wednesday.