Lemm blasts grand slam for Janesville Craig, but Middleton overcomes to win

Ryan Lemm’s first prep home run was a grand slam to put Janesville Craig ahead of Middleton in the fourth inning, but the Cardinals bounced back and took advantage of some sloppy play to beat the Cougars 7-6 in Middleton for a split of the season series.

Middleton built a 4-0 lead through three innings thanks in part to a couple of Craig errors in a two-run second for the hosts.

”We had a misplay early, then it snowballed and we were down 4-0,” Craig coach Josh Shere said.

The Cougars’ rally in the fourth started with a Drayton Lou single. With one out, Nick Gregg took a walk, then back-to-back singles by Finn Dillon and Ben Schaffner scored one run and loaded the bases.

Another run scored when Paul Platts drew a walk. Middleton changed pitchers, setting the stage for Lemm to smash a no-doubter to right field to put his team up 6-4.

The Cardinals got a run back in the bottom of the fifth, then their first four hitters in the bottom of the sixth reached base with runs scoring on an error at shortstop and an RBI single from Kevin Sheehan to make it 7-6.

”They executed better than us in a sloppy game for both teams,” Shere said. “We did not deserve to win.”

Craig has a game scheduled at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Elkhorn.

MIDDLETON 7, JANESVILLE CRAIG 6

Janesville Craig 000 600 0 — 6 8 5

Middleton 121 012 X — 7 8 0

Leading hitters — Claas (JC) 2x3, Schaffner (JC) 2x3, Sheehan (M) 2x4. 3B — Tompach (M). HR — Lemm (JC).

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — JC: Horkan 3-5-4-2-3-4; Dillon 2-1-1-0-2-1; Claas L, 1-2-2-1-1-2. M: Passaglia L, 3 1/3-4-5-5-2-1; Guerrero 1 2/3-2-1-1-0-1; Pape W, 2-2-0-0-2-3.