Brookfield East's late rally beats Lancers, sends Spartans to state

Brookfield East exploded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to defeat Brookfield Central, 7-6, Saturday night to win the WIAA Sectional Championship at Germantown.

As a result, the Spartans (17-13) will be making their third trip to state and their first since 1988 when current first-year coach Bill Woodring also coached them.

Central was in command of the game and six outs from a trip to state, when the Spartans put together a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth to win a thriller.

Brian Sylla singled to left to begin the rally and after a passed ball, Drew Kehoe singled to left moving Sylla to third. John Foley then blooped a single to right scoring Sylla and moving courtesy runner Andy Wiesen to second.

George Kotsonis then hit a slow roller in front of home plate and beat the throw to first to load the bases for lead-off hitter Brandt Rogers. Rogers then jumped on a pitch and drilled a single to center scoring Wiesen and Foley to bring East within one and moving Kotsonis to second.

After a strikeout, Nick Kanavs hit a grounder through the shortstop's legs, allowing Kotsonis to score the tying run. After a fly out to center for the second out, sophomore Mike Eberle came up and drilled a single to right scoring Rogers with the winning run.

Pat O'Brien, who had come on to pitch in the sixth, then struck out the first hitter in the seventh but Ryan Fullington reached second on a throwing error by the shortstop.

Fullington then went to third on a ground out to shortstop and Central's final hopes ended with a pop-up to short for the final out.

A wild pitch scored Central's first run in the four-run second and an RBI-single by Dan Barwick and an error by the leftfielder on Connor Shipman's fly ball scored two more runs for a 4-1 lead.

After Kanavas had an RBI single in the third to cut the lead to 4-2, the Lancers (21-12) added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 6-2 lead into the fateful sixth.