By Reagan Hoverman

The Prescott Pirates punched their ticket to the 2022 Wisconsin Baseball Association (WBA) State Tournament after lights-out pitching led to victories against La Crescent and Chippewa Falls in the Regional Tournament on Saturday, Aug. 13, and Sunday, Aug. 14.

The #10 seeded Prescott Pirates began the WBA Regional weekend on Saturday, Aug. 13, against the #34 La Crescent Cardinals in a 7:30 p.m. contest under the lights at First National Bank of River Falls Field in River Falls.

Prescott starting pitcher Evan Bayer wasted no time getting the action going with a three up, three down top of the first inning that included two strikeouts. The Pirates’ offense loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning with two singles and a walk.

That’s when Kevin Woebke roped an RBI single to center field to make it 1-0 in favor of Prescott. After a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0, Dylan Gausman ripped an RBI single down the left-field line to make it 3-0 in favor of the Pirates. Prescott’s early scoring concluded when the Cardinals walked in a run with the bases loaded to make it 4-0 after the opening frame.

After Prescott added another run, La Cres- cent's most significant scoring came in the second and third innings, when the Cardinals strung together multiple hits to score three runs and make it a 5-3 game.

That’s when Bayer again found his groove and struck out the side in the top of the fourth inning to stall any momentum that the Cardinals may have been building. In the bottom of the same frame, Prescott scored three runs, two of which came from Woebke when he blasted a two-RBI double to the outfield.

Prescott's ouensive excellence and lights- out pitching led to a 12-3 victory against the Cardinals. Bayer pitched seven innings, recorded nine strikeouts and allowed only three earned runs. Eric Munson cleaned up the last two innings for the Pirates and tallied three strikeouts while allowing zero hits.

The victory solidified Prescott's slot in the 3 p.m. game on Sunday, Aug. 14, against the Chippewa Falls LumberJacks that featured Prescott’s most anticipated pitching performance of the entire season.

See PIRATES, Page B-3

Prescott Pirates pitcher Kale Hopke, who joined the Pirates for the 2022 postseason and previously pitched for the Osceola Braves, delivers a strike against Chippewa Falls in a 5-1 victory to secure a State Tournament berth. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

Prescott shortstop Billy Brookshaw fields a groundball and rifles it to first baseman Kevin Woebke to retire a Chippewa Falls batter on Sunday, Aug. 14. Photo by Reagan Hoverman Pirates

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As per WBA postseason rules, each play- ou team can add one player of their choice from a team in the same league, in this case, the St. Croix Valley Baseball League, to their roster for the postseason.

The Prescott Pirates selected Osceola Braves pitcher Kale Hopke as their postseason addition. Throughout the season, Hopke was regarded as one of the best pitchers in the St. Croix Valley Baseball League. His debut pitching performance was in that Regional Tournament game on Sunday against Chippewa Falls and he didn’t disappoint the Prescott faithful.

Hopke's first two innings of work includ ed four strikeouts and zero hits allowed. The only LumberJack to reach base was Luke Schemenauer who got hit by a curveball that got away from Hopke in the top of the first inning.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning that the LumberJacks got on the board. With runners on second and third, Hopke lost control of a pitch that got past Prescott’s catcher and allowed the runner to score from third base.

Hopke bounced back in the top of the fifth inning by striking out three of the first four batters he faced. His fastball impressed the radar gun and he found his breaking ball in the middling innings.

Hopke didn’t run out of gas until the sixth inning when Chippewa Falls loaded the bases with two singles and a walk with only one out. That’s when Prescott player/manager Billy Brookshaw brought the infield together and made the decision to go to the bullpen.

In Hopke's just over five innings of work, he struck out 10 batters and allowed only one earned run. Brookshaw spoke about Hopke’s debut performance for the Pirates and what he brings to their roster as an ace pitcher for the postseason run.

"(Hopke) diced out there," Brookshaw said. “To be honest, we were kind of expecting him to do that. He’s pitched against us before, so we knew he was going to have a hard fastball and you could see him settle in.

He found his curveball in the fourth and that pushed him from the third to the fifth inning. He cruised from there on out.”

As Hopke left the mound, trusted reliever Kevin Woebke took to the mound and retired the next two Chippewa Falls batters to get out of the bases-loaded jam in that pivotal sixth inning. Brookshaw spoke about Woebke’s relief appearance.

“That was a huge spot. He got out of a couple of big innings,” Brookshaw said. “The next inning there were guys on again and he got a big strikeout that we needed. They had chances and they had good at-bats, even against Kale (Hopke)." After getting out of a couple of potentially disastrous innings, Woebke and the Pirates cruised to a 5-1 victory to advance to the WBA State Tournament next weekend. Brookshaw spoke about how getting to state has become an expectation for their program.

"It's definitely an expectation to make it to state,” Brookshaw said. “I can’t tell you spe- cific numbers how many times we've made it in the last ten years, but it’s high, probably seven or eight out of ten years. It’s an expectation for us to come and win.”

While Brookshaw and the Pirates have consistently found themselves playing in the annual WBA State Tournament, he stated that it remains a challenge to get to state because of the high-level competition at Regionals every year.

“These aren’t bad teams at all,” Brookshaw said. “If you come here and don’t play well, you could lose easily. You’ve got to show up and play well or you’re going to be in deep trouble.”

While Brookshaw stated that his Pirates made some mistakes against Chippewa Falls, they made enough good plays to secure the victory and a state tournament berth. Their 2-0 record in pool play at the River Falls Regional came without star center field er Michael Lytle, who was on vacation this weekend. He is expected to play in the state tournament next weekend.

Full schedules with dates, times and locations are expected to be announced this week once the WBA has reseeded the teams that qualified for the 2022 State Tournament.