Wiesen's 'walk-off' walk sparks Spartans 5-4 win over Central

Brookfield Central traveled to Brookfield East on Tuesday and played before a large crowd in a Greater Metro Conference game that met and probably surpassed expectations in the second Battle of Brookfield this year.

The Spartans finally won in extra innings when Central's Elijah Goodman walked East's Andy Wiesen with the bases loaded and no one out to force in Griffin Lynch with the winning run in a 5-4 victory.

It looked like Wiesen had won the game two innings before when he doubled in a run to give the Spartans a 4-3 lead. But the Lancers tied the game in the top of the seventh with two men out and no one on base.

Goodman singled to right and was pinch-run for by Conor Garvey. Winning pitcher Ryan Rouse hit Brett Puffer and then Charlie O'Dwyer singled to left and scored Garvey to tie the game at 4-4.

But after East and Central went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh and top of the eighth, Lynch singled to center to start the bottom of the eighth.

Then Mike Eberle, attempting to sacrifice Lynch to second, popped his bunt to the right of the mound, past a charging Goodman, putting runners on first and second.

Rouse beat out a hit to shortstop to load the bases, setting up a battle between Wiesen and Goodman. Goodman fell behind in the count, but battled back to a full count, before walking Wiesen on a high pitch to end the intra-city battle.

"We won as a team," Wiesen said. "It just wasn't me. I wanted it, everyone wanted it, and we were feeling it when we tied it up at four. We felt awesome going into that inning. Rouse threw a great game, and it felt really good."

The real battle came on the mound, as Rouse and Goodman tossed complete game efforts. Rouse allowed seven hits and three earned runs, walked two, hit a batter and struck out nine. Goodman allowed eight hits, four earned runs and three walks and fanned seven.

"I think when we tied it, I think he just said, 'I'm going to win this one,' " East coach Bill Woodring said. "And I've been waiting for him to do that. He just got the eye of a tiger, the bulldog look, and he said, 'I'm going to get this done.' "

Rouse deflected the credit to his team, and fate.

"I really wanted this win," he said. "I just threw my pitches and got lucky. And I got help from my teammates' fielding."

The key to the game came in the fifth inning with the Lancers leading 3-1. Rouse walked Connor Shipman and Goodman singled to center to start the inning. Garvey pinch ran and stole second as Brett Puffer struck out, giving Central runners on second and third with one out.

With the game in the balance, Rouse also struck out Charlie O'Dwyer and then got Eric Ranchau to fly to center.

"The way we've been going, the guys behind him were saying if he can do it, I think we can do it," Woodring said. "He took everything on his shoulders and said, 'I'm going to do this. I don't care what happened in the past, I'm gonna do it.' And he just took care of business.

And then Woodring gave his starter a huge compliment.

"He became a varsity pitcher tonight," he said. "Up until this point he's been a JV guy learning how to pitch on the varsity. With this tonight, I think he really understands what it means to be a varsity pitcher."

With one out in the fifth, Tommy Tushaus singled and Brandt Rogers bunted to third. Rogers beat the throw, which went past the first baseman, sending Tushaus all the way home and Rogers to second. Rogers then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Pat O'Brien's sacrifice fly to left to tie the game at 3-3.

Veteran Central coach Jeff Bigler wasn't pleased with his team's play.

"If we don't give them five outs an inning we're very capable of beating anybody," he said. "With less than two outs and runners in scoring position we needed to put the ball in play, and again we failed to do that.

"Two nights in a row we've done a terrible job - 12 runners left on base against Tosa East last night and against a better ball club, you are not going to get away with that."