Muskego Impact Wins Division Crown

The Muskego Impact sewed up the Land O’ Lakes eastern division crown with a 10-3 victory over Racine Kiwanis last week Wednesday at Harden Field.  It is the first time that the Impact has accomplished this feat finishing on top of the division with a 14-4 record.  Their overall record stands at 16-6.  With a nucleus of good established veteran players and the addition of some young talent the past two years, they look to continue their success as they head into the playoffs. They earned a first round bye so will first play next Wednesday, Aug 8^th taking on the lowest seeded team that wins this coming weekend.  They will play that team in a three game series with the second game, and third if needed, at Horn Field on Sunday, Aug 12^th.

In that league clinching game against Racine, the Impact faced Josh Baker, who recently graduated from University School with all types of accolades and will be attending University of Jacksonville on a full ride.  The Impact must not have known about all the hoopla over this glorified high school player as they got to him for 7 runs on 11 hits in 5 and  2/3^rd innings finishing the night with 15 hits.  Leading the way was Josh Beatka with 4 hits, including a double and home run driving in 5 runs.  Nick Schmidlkofer collected 3 hits and Mike Robinson, Bob Dillon and George Simmons picked up 2 hits each.  Luke Rozmarynowski (4-0) pitched a heck of a game picking up the win going 8 innings, allowing only 3 runs on 4 hits and did not walk a batter, but did hit two.  Jake Jewell pitched the final inning striking out two.

On Friday night, the Impact returned to action in the Swaba Tourney dropping a 7-5 seven inning contest to the West Allis Nationals at Meyer Park in Wind Lake.  It was a close 2-1 game until West Allis tallied 5 runs in the top of the sixth inning.  The Impact could not recovery, but did put on a 3 run rally in the bottom of the seventh when the last out was recorded with the bases loaded.   The Impact came up with 8 hits on the evening with Mike Robinson collecting 3 and Nick Blanchet 2.  Nick Mlachnik took the loss pitching 5 innings allowing only 3 runs on 5 hits, but walked 7.  Cole Borek finished up the last two innings allowing 4 runs on only one hit, but walked 2.

The Impact completed their regular season schedule with a doubleheader split on Sunday at Horn Field against the Butler Bombers.  They won the first game 7-1 and dropped the second game 2-1.  David Mihlsimmer (6-1) continued his winning ways in the first game pitching 5 innings allowing one run on 5 hits, striking out 2 and walking 3.  Jake Jewell pitched the final two innings not allowing a hit, striking out 3 and walking 2.  On the offense, the Impact collected 12 hits with Kevin Schoenbach picking up 3 and Joe Kooping, Bob Dillon and Andy Liss picking up 2.  Dillon drove in 6 of the 7 runs with a sacrifice fly, a 3-run home run and a 2-run double.   In the second game loss, the Impact couldn’t get anything going offensively after scoring in the first inning.  They only collected 5 hits with Josh Beatka picking up 2.  Peter Jewell started on the mound pitching 2 innings when he had to be removed from the game because of a sore arm.  He had allowed one run on one hit, striking out 2.  Cole Borek relieved in the third inning and ended up with the loss, but pitched well over 4 innings, allowing one run on 4 hits, striking out 2 and only walking one.  One of those hits was a game winning home run hit in the sixth inning.  Jake Jewell pitched the final inning allowing two hits.

After Sunday’s games, there was little celebrating going on as the Impact had done something they had never done prior—win a division crown.  During the celebrating, GM Jim Haag toasted all to congratulate the team and coaching staff for winning the division and said it was a long time coming.  Coach Rick Henneberry said he likes his chances in the playoffs and hopes to see the stands full at Horn Field on Sunday, Aug 12^th.