In order to win the Land O' Lakes Western Division crown and advance to the Grand Championship round, the second-seeded Brookfield Bulldogs needed to beat regular-season champion West Bend twice last weekend.
West Bend had to lose twice to be eliminated, while the other five playoff teams were out with one loss.
Both West Bend and Brookfield had a bye in the first-round games Aug. 14 and each won its second-round game Aug. 15.
The Bulldogs clobbered the 7-Up, 15-2, last Saturday at McCoy Field, setting up a showdown for the division title at West Bend on Sunday.
After banging out 15 hits in Saturday's win, the Bulldogs were held to one hit by big right-hander Andy Hetebrueg on Sunday and dropped a 2-0 decision and a chance to advance.
Hetebrueg, who pitched at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, fanned 12 Bulldogs, walked one and hit one batter. Josh Lemke's single to right field to open the sixth inning was the only hit for Brookfield.
Brookfield starting pitcher Greg Basthemer deserved a better fate, allowing one run on five hits in six innings, walking two and fanning three. Mark Erickson worked the final two innings, allowing one run on one hit while walking two batters.
The game was scoreless until the 7-Up pushed across a run in the sixth when Basthemer allowed a walk to Mike Mueller and a single to Erik Kraemer to open the inning. Catcher Mike Jacobs picked Mueller off second for the first out of the inning, but Adam Rohlinger singled to left and both runners moved up on a wild pitch.
Basthemer struck out Billy Bynum, but Dan Mueller singled to center to drive in Kraemer.
Jed Justman blooped a double that bounced off the glove of diving leftfielder Eric Sobczak. He was sacrificed to third and scored on Erickson's wild pitch.
Hetebrueg shut down the Bulldogs' top five hitters, holding them to one walk and a hit batter in 16 plate appearances.
Saturday's game
The Bulldogs scored four runs in the third inning and three runs in the fifth to put the game away Saturday.
Kris Franzen tripled and singled three times, while scoring four times; Ernest Castro doubled twice, singled, was hit by a pitch, scored twice and drove in two runs; and Scott Booth slammed a two-run homer and a single and tallied three RBIs to lead the attack.
Josh Eidt allowed five hits and one walk and fanned four for the complete game win.
- Tom "Sky" Skibosh
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