Nail biters have been a common occurrence with the Five Os recently, and the SWABA Class A championship game was no different. Oconomowoc edged out Brookfield 5-4 to take the title. Eight of Oconomowoc's last 9 games have been decided by one run or in the last inning. The game started with the Bulldogs striking first. In the top of the 2nd inning, pitcher Kirk Ressler walked Scott Booth to lead off the inning. After an error on a sacrifice bunt, Booth then scored on a sacrifice fly. Oconomowoc was able to snatch the lead in the bottom of the 3rd when Bob Bolson dropped down a perfect drag bunt single and then scored on a double by Luke Nelson with two outs. Jeff Rhoads then continued the two out rally with a single to score Nelson. In the top of the 4th, Derek Nelson preserved the lead and got Oconomowoc out of a tough, bases loaded jam when he threw out Shane Davis tagging up on a fly ball. In the bottom of the 4th, the Os stretched their lead to 3-1 when Steve Rhoads led off with a walk and eventually scored on a double steal. Fighting back, Brookfield cut the lead back down to 1 when they scored a run in the top of the 5th. A walk to the #9 hitter was followed by two singles. Things remained 3-2 until the bottom of the 8th. Looking for some insurance runs, Oconomowoc managed to get runners on second and third with two outs. A wild pitch by Geoff Standish allowed Luke Nelson to score from third and then when the throw was mishandled from the catcher, Steve Rhoads made a big heads up play scoring on the error. The runs gave Oconomowoc a 5-2 cushion going into the top of the 9th, but Brookfield would not go down easy. Three of their first four hitters in the inning managed to get on via two singles and a walk which loaded the bases with one out. Kris Franzen hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-3 with two outs. What looked to be the end of the game, a routine grounder was thrown away by third baseman Tim Schlosser which allowed another run to score and put the tying run on second base and the go ahead run on first. Kirk Ressler then stepped up and threw some brilliant curve balls to strike out clean up hitter Scott Booth and seal the 5-4 win for Oconomowoc. The last time Oconomowoc won SWABA was in 2003. When asked to comment about the win, manager Jeff Rhoads stated, "It was a huge win for us. We didn't have a lot of our guys for some of the games, but were still able to pull off the wins. It shows the depth we have and that guys can step up when asked. Kirk threw a great game. He struggled with his control some, but made the big pitches when needed. Our defense also stepped up big at times. Luke made some great plays at short and Derek throwing out Davis at home was a huge momentum swing. We need to take this momentum into the final weeks of the LOL and playoffs."
The win puts Oconomowoc at 24-7 overall. They have two games left in the LOL West regular season before beginning the playoffs next Sunday. The square up against Hartland on Sunday and then Brookfield next Saturday. Both games are home.
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