Rocky Start Dooms Knights In Sectional Final

Allowing a leadoff home run was not the start the Oak Creek baseball team envisioned for their sectional final game against Franklin. 

Unfortunately for the Knights, it didn't get any better from there.

Franklin tallied four runs in the first inning and never looked back, beating Oak Creek 7-2 on Saturday in South Milwaukee.

The Sabers advance to the state semifinals next week in Stevens Point. 

For the Knights, it was a disappointing end to a stellar season. Oak Creek finished with a 27-8 overall record, were the outright champions of the Greater Metro Conference and compiled a school-record 18-game winning streak.

"They have to walk out of here extremely proud of everything they accomplished," head coach Scott Holler said. "They won the best conference in the state by two games. If you put all your stock in one game, you're in the wrong sport."

Starting pitcher Austin Barbee had a chance to get out of the first inning with only one run allowed after he induced a flyout with the bases loaded and one out.

However, the Sabers tagged Barbee for three more runs on consecutive singles, putting the Knights in a four-run hole before they had a chance to bat. 

"Franklin came out and kicked us in the teeth in the first inning, and it was hard to recover from that," Holler said.

Barbee and two other Knights' pitchers, Hayden Krimmer and Ryan Ungerecht, settled down after the first.

But Oak Creek's offense couldn't get much going. The Knights scored in the third on an Ungerecht infield single, and again in the sixth on an RBI double by third basement Jake Gordon.

It could have been more. Three different times, the Knights put runners on first and second with one or no outs, but Franklin pitcher Evan Kruczynski limited the damage.

"Too many strikeouts," Holler said. "We just kept getting strikeout after strikeout. That's a credit to Kruczynski bearing down. He didn't have his best stuff today but he beared down when he had to."

The Knights and Sabers, generally regarded as two of the best teams in the state, split during the regular season. 

But it was Franklin, the defending state champion, winning when it mattered most.

"They're an outstanding team," Holler said. "They have a great shot again."