Madison Legion Sweeps South Wood County to Open Season

The Madison Legion baseball team traveled to Vesper, WI on Friday evening to face the Cardinals of South Wood County in their first two games of the 2011 summer season. Madison Legion swept South Wood in both games, by final scores of 6-3 and 19-2.

GAME 1

The first game saw '11 Sun Prairie graduate and Madison College recruit Chas Schuster take the mound. Schuster set the tone for Madison, earning the win to move to 1-0 on the season as he pitched 6.1 innings with 4K and just 3 runs. '11 Verona graduate and Kankakee Community College recruit Josh Hainzinger came into the game in the bottom of the seventh with one out, and struck out the last two batters to earn his first save of the season.

Offensively, Madison struck first in the bottom of the first inning as '11 Madison LaFollete graduate and Marian University recruit Tony Grannis led off with a double. '10 Verona graduate and Viterbo University freshmen Nick Zwieg advanced Grannis to third base on a groundout to second. '11 Sun Prairie graduate and Ohio Wesleyan recruit Sam Abbott brought Grannis in on a sacrifice fly to center to give Madison a 1-0 lead.

Madison and South Wood traded scoreless innings until the top of the 6th inning when '11 Madison LaFollette graduate Taylor Carlson led off the inning with a solo HR. '11 Verona graduate and Edgewood College recruit Ben Jennings then walked, and Verona junior Luke Yapp brought in himself and Jennings on a two-run HR to give Madison a 4-0 lead. Madison Edgewood junior Jack Reiland then singled, and was brought in on a Grannis single to bring Madison's lead to 6-0.

South Wood answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the 6th inning on the power of a 2-run HR. Madison was held scoreless in the top of the seventh, but held South Wood to just 1 run in the bottom of the 7th to hold onto the lead on their way to a 6-3 victory.

Offensively Madison was led by the bat of Yapp, who finished 3-4 with 2 RBI, a HR, a single and a double. Grannis also collected 3 hits, and finished 3-4 with 2 runs and 1 RBI.

GAME 2

Game two saw Taylor Carlson take the bump and dominate the South Wood hitters, going the distance for a 7-inning complete game, giving up just 4 hits, striking out 6, and allowing just 1 free pass.

Offensively, Madison exploded for 19 runs on 22 hits, with 10 runs coming in the top of the 7th inning. Madison Legion had seven players with multiple hits and were led once again by the bat of Luke Yapp, who finished 4-6 with 3 RBI, on the power of three singles and a double. '10 Madison Edgewood graduate Zach Addamo also collected four hits, and finished 4-5 with 3 runs, 4 RBI and 2 SB on the power of 2 singles and 2 doubles. Nick Zwieg added 3 hits, and Tony Grannis, Jack Rieland and Taylor Carlson added 2 hits of their own en route to the 19-2 victory.

With the sweep, Madison Legion begins the season 2-0 as they head to Watertown on Sunday for another doubleheader.