Milton hands Beaver Dam its first loss of the season in matchup of state-ranked teams

After losing to Beaver Dam in uncharacteristic fashion back on April 22, Milton’s softball team knew it needed to play cleaner softball if it wanted to beat the Golden Beavers in the rematch.

With just one error committed, the Red Hawks can consider it mission accomplished.

Behind Gwen Baker’s two-hit shutout, No. 7 Milton went on the road and handed No. 6 Beaver Dam its first loss of the season, 7-0.

Milton committed its lone error of the game on the first Beaver Dam plate appearance, but Baker didn’t sweat it and stranded the runner on second.

After that, the Golden Beavers mustered just two more base runners on back-to-back two-out singles in the third.

Those hits came after Baker delivered with her bat in the top of the third.

The Red Hawks already led 1-0, and Kylie Reed and Ella Knoble started the frame by reaching on a walk and an error.

Beaver Dam pitcher Riley Czarnecki struck out the next two Red Hawks to come to the plate before facing Baker.

She fell behind the count 0-2 but got it back to full before sending Czarnecki’s next delivery on a line to left field to bring Reed and Knoble home and make it 3-0.

Milton kept adding to its lead from there, taking advantage of Beaver Dam errors and walks while Baker retired the last 13 batters of the game for the win.

The Red Hawks’ Badger Large record improved to 8-2 while the Golden Beavers dropped back to 9-1, one game ahead in the league standings. Milton’s next game is scheduled at Schilberg Park at 5 p.m. Tuesday against DeForest.

MILTON 7, BEAVER DAM 0

Milton 012 103 0 — 7 4 1

Beaver Dam 000 000 0 — 0 2 4

2B — G. Baker (M).

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — M: G. Baker W, 7-2-0-0-0-7. BD: Czarnecki L, 6-4-7-2-8-12; Damon 1-0-0-0-0-1.