BASEBALL

Wausau National falls in Little League regional opener

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
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WESTFIELD, Ind. - Wausau National’s path to the Little League World Series got a little more challenging Sunday afternoon.

West Side-Ohio rolled to a 22-4 win over National in four innings in the opening game of the Great Lakes Regional and has Wausau playing for its postseason life in the double-elimination tournament.

National has been in a similar situation already in the postseason. Wausau  dropped its first two games of the state tournament last weekend only to roll off five straight wins to  advance from pool play and ultimately take the title.

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That win streak came to an end against the Ohio squad which put the game away with 13 runs in the top of the fourth inning.

Keagen Jirschele and Landon Parlier both had two hits to lead National, which finished with eight hits as a team.  Elijah Gustafson and Jirschele hit solo home runs in the second and third innings, respectively, for National.

Parlier scored on a passed ball National trailed 2-1 after the first inning, but Ohio responded with eight runs in the second.

Ohio led 9-3 after three innings and then scored 13 in the fourth, which included a grand slam by Braedyn Moore.

National’s Taylor Lemanski doubled in the bottom half of the inning and scored on a single by Jacob Pease.

Ohio had three home runs and totaled 15 hits in the win.  Moore went 3-for-4 with four runs and four RBI to lead the way and Kate Polido also went 3-for-4.

Blake Nichols took the loss for National.