THE TOURNAMENT: The 49th Annual Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Summer Baseball State Tournament will take place Friday, July 19, at Kapco Park on the campus of Concordia University in Mequon, Wis. Action will begin at noon with the first of two semifinals followed by the championship game at 6:35 p.m. Ticket prices for the tourney are $8 per session and are available only at the park.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE AND PAIRINGS: The format features a single elimination tournament with four teams in a single division. The second semifinal game will follow the first game.
Friday, July 19
Semifinals - Noon
Game #1 - Sheboygan Falls (17-11) vs. West Bend West (23-8)
Game #2 - Kettle Moraine (25-5) vs. New Berlin West (24-5)*
Championship Final - 6:35 p.m.
Game #3 - Winner of Game #1 vs. Winner of Game #2
* Following first game of session.
STATE GAMES ON THE WEB: The semifinals and finals of the WIAA State Summer Baseball Tournament will be streamed live on foxsportswisconsin.com.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES ON FS WISCONSIN: Watch the delayed broadcast of the WIAA State Summer Baseball Championship game on FS Wisconsin. The game is scheduled to air on Thursday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. Check local cable listings for the channel in your area.
TEAM TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The WIAA has been sponsoring the State Summer Baseball Championships since 1965. Oak Creek leads in the number of titles won with four. Brookfield Central, Brown Deer, Greendale, Homestead, West Bend East and West Bend West have won the most State championships with three, followed by Arrowhead, Franklin, Marquette and Nicolet with two. New Holstein has made the most State appearances with 18. Ashland is second on the list of tournament appearances with 13; Platteville and West Bend West have made 12 appearances; and Arcadia, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau, Plymouth and West Bend East have each made appearances in 10 State Tournaments. The State Summer Baseball Tournament has been won by 30 different schools.
LAST YEAR: Oak Creek won its membership-leading fourth State championship by defeating Germantown 5-4 in the championship game. The Knights erased a 4-0 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and scored the winning run in the seventh. Three of the four runs scored by the Knights in the sixth were unearned on three Germantown errors. Tanner Johnson, Riley Shelton and Dakota Slone led the Knights offense, each with a pair of hits.
TOURNAMENT FIELD: West Bend West will be making its 13th appearance at the State Tournament and its eighth in the last 10 seasons. The Spartans won State titles in 1972, 1984 and 2007, and have had runner-up finishes in 1981, 2010 and in 2011. They finished fourth in the North Shore Conference this year and qualified through the Cedarburg Sectional with a 4-3 win over Nicolet in the final. Sheboygan Falls returns to the State Tournament for the third straight season and for the fifth time overall. The Falcons won the championship in 1973. This season, they finished third in the Eastern Wisconsin Conference, and they advance from the sectional final held at Campbellsport with a 3-1 victory over Kewaskum. New Berlin West makes its second overall appearance and its first since its only other appearance in 2010. The Vikings lost in the quarterfinals in that initial experience. They defeated Muskego 3-2 in the Whitnall Sectional final to advance to the State semifinals. They were champions in the West Division of the Woodland Conference this season. Kettle Moraine is making its third appearance at State. The Lasers’ two other appearances resulted in a State title in 1988 and a runner-up finish in 2008. They finished atop the Classic 8 Conference standings this summer and are the qualifiers out of the Brookfield Central Sectional following a 3-0 win over Pius XI in the final.
NEED RESULTS?: The quickest way to get results will be to access the summer baseball page on the WIAA website at: http://www.wiaawi.org/Sports/BaseballSummer.aspx and choose the appropriate 2013 link on the summer baseball State Tournament results page.