Appleton East clinches FVA title outright

APPLETON - Three days after playing 41 innings in a three-game Saturday tournament at Chippewa Falls, the Appleton East softball team was back at it Tuesday, with a lot at stake.

In the Patriots’ final regular season game, they had a chance to wrap up the outright title in the Fox Valley Association, but standing in their way was an Appleton North team looking for its 19th win of the season.

Seemingly no easy task, but for the second time this season East pitcher Lauren Blasczyk made sure Lightning wouldn’t strike as the junior fired a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts and no walks as the Patriots handled North, 8-0, at Del Prust Field, clinching East’s second title in three seasons.

It was Blasczyk’s second shutout against North this season. And not to be lost in the moment was she pitched 23 innings during Saturday’s record 27-inning win over Watertown.

She didn’t show any signs of Saturday’s workload.

“I was alright,” Blasczyk said. “We had a long weekend and a long day on Saturday, but knowing this game could make us conference champs, I came out strong and wanted to perform well.”

Blasczyk set the tone early, striking out five batters in the first three innings while not allowing a hit.

“I thought she’d be a little tired,” East coach Janel Batten said. “She didn’t show it, but I think she was a little bit tired, but she wasn’t going to tell me that because she wanted to pitch. She did a great job, you got to hand it to her; mind over matter.”

Offense blows up for Patriots
With Blasczyk was dealing in the circle all East really needed was one run and it got that in the first inning. But just to be safe East piled on seven runs in the third inning as 11 players batted.

“Maddie (Boyd’s) a great pitcher and we knew she would really want to get after us,” Batten said of North’s pitcher. “We talked about not waiting until the end to get the run. Let’s be the first team to get out there and get a run.”

Blasczyk talked about what a seven-run inning does for her.

“It lets you relax on the mound, breathe easier,” Blasczyk said. “Obviously take the same mentality if it’s a 0-0 game, but it lets you relax and have some fun.”

FVA title all East’s
East led defending champion Kaukauna by one game in the FVA entering Tuesday so East knew if it took care of business it didn’t matter what the Ghosts did.

The Patriots did just that and won a conference title Batten wasn’t sure it could win at the start of the season.

“My mindset is we always want to be the best team because we want to get down to state,” Batten said. “We knew there was more parity than usual in our conference and after that Neenah game (6-1 loss early in the season), I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, this is going to be a bumpy ride.’

“But the kids decided they wanted to win this. This was their first goal and you got to hand it to them; they did it.”

Added Blasczyk: “We knew coming out we wanted to take matters into our hands and win conference outright. Especially being Senior Night, we wanted to play well for them.”

• Notes: Boyd had two of North’s three hits. … This marks the fourth year in a row East has won at least 20 games. ... Tierney Wittmann, Marissa Michalkiewicz and Nicole Kitten each had two hits for East. … North was shut out twice this season, both times by East (9-0 and 8-0). … Wednesday is the seed meeting for Division 1.
• Game ball: Blasczyk, who showed no effects from Saturday’s marathon and was stellar in the circle.
• Numbers game: 2 Times this season Blasczyk shut out North.

APPLETON EAST 8, APPLETON NORTH 0
Appleton North… 000 000 0 – 0  4  4
Appleton East….. 107 000 x – 8  9  1

WP – Lauren Blasczyk (7 IP, 12 K).
LP – Maddie Boyd (6 IP, 6 K, 2 ).

Top hitters
AN – Boyd 2-3.
AE – Tierney Wittmann 2-4, 2 R; Marissa Michalkiewicz 2-3, 2B. 2 RBI; Nicole Kitten 2-4.

Records: AN 18-6, 13-5. AE 20-4, 16-2.

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

http://doug.ritchay@wluk.com