By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
In the baseball movie "Major League," Cleveland Indians manager Lou Brown noted his struggling team's turnaround by saying the simple line "It's starting to come together."
While Stevens Point American Legion Post 6 coach Tom Drohner wasn't heard reciting the same line, the first-year Sixers coach realized his team's 5-1 win over Appleton Post 38 in the Firecracker Classic finale Tuesday was a big one for his young team.
"I'm really proud of what our team has accomplished. I definitely think this is something we can build on. We're playing well as a team," Drohner said.
"I think they just decided that they've had enough."
Post 6, which improved to 6-13 on the year, didn't waste its time jumping on the scoreboard. The Sixers scored all five of their runs in the opening inning and then held the lead with strong pitching from Chris Jacobson and Jesse Nagorski and good defense.
After reaching first base on an error to lead off the game, Kent Dernbach scored on Gabe Bauer's RBI double that sailed over leftfielder Josh Olearnick's head. Jon Bergeron and Tony Devivo were then both hit by pitches from Jon Winterfeldt to load the bases.
Following a Nagorski strikeout, Eric Napiwocki nailed a bases clearing triple to the rightfield corner, giving the Sixers a 4-0 lead. Dan Yudchitz then hit a RBI single into leftfield, scoring Napiwocki to put Post 6 ahead 5-0.
"That's important to give ourselves some confidence," Drohner said of the first inning outburst. "For our confidence, that was huge. It's certainly a lot easier to play with a lead. That was a big thing against those guys."
Appleton answered with a run in the second when Mike Huven tripled and then scored on a Dave Riester single. Post 38 left the bases loaded in the fourth before mounting another charge in the fifth.
Jake Ziebell lead off the inning with a single and then was forced at second on Justin Vanderwyst's fielder's-choice groundball. After Chuck Galloway walked, Nagorski relieved Jacobson and put out the fire.
Nagorski got out of the jam in a hurry, striking out Huven and then getting Riester to hit a grounder between the mound and first base. Nagorski fielded the ball and scooped it to Jacobson, who had moved to first base, to end the threat.
Nagorski then shut down Appleton in the final two innings, allowing only two baserunners - he hit one batter and allowed a single.
"Jesse pitched seven innings today," Drohner said, including Nagorski's work against De Pere earlier Tuesday. "We were in a situation where we didn't have many arms left, so I asked for a show of hands of who could pitch. Jesse was one of the first guys to put his arm up."
The win was also big for Drohner and the team's senior advisor, George Roman. Roman's No. 1 ranked SPASH Panthers fell to No. 2 ranked Appleton West in the opening round of the WIAA playoffs and Drohner's SPASH softball team lost 1-0 to Appleton East in the state championship game.
"We wanted this game bad. We owed them this one," Drohner said. "This was a little redemption for George and myself."
Added Roman: "It made my summer. No more bad dreams."
But while revenge was sweet, Drohner continued to stress how important Post 6's 2-3 showing in the 28th annual Firecracker Classic was.
"This is a highly competitive tournament and our guys competed well against this competition," he said.
"This game is about confidence and when you compete well with good teams you start to gain confidence. That's what we need."