By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Plover's potent, power-hitting lineup ran into a brick wall Sunday in the semifinal of the Badger Amateur Baseball Association playoffs. And that wall was Clintonville pitcher Brad Everts.
Everts silenced Plover's bats, retiring 21 of the first 23 batters he faced in a 3-0 Clintonville win. Clintonville scored once in the first inning and added two unearned runs in the fourth while Everts kept Plover's bats in check.
"He did the job. You have to give him a lot of credit," Plover player/manager Mark Mattmiller said. "He would get ahead in the count and we couldn't put the ball in play."
Plover came within a few feet of tying the game in the eighth inning, when it appeared Everts started to tire. Bryan Martzahl and Brett Dickey led off the frame with back to back singles, but Mark Mattmiller forced Dickey at second and reached on a fielder's choice.
After a Greg Treml pop-up, Sam Molski had runners at the corners with two away. The shortstop drove an Everts offering deep into leftfield, where potential game-tying 3-run home run was caught at the warning track.
"That's the situation where we should have capitalized and we didn't," Mattmiller said of the eighth inning. "He probably shut us down more than we didn't do the job."
John Jasenovsky had a one-out double to rightfield in the ninth, but was stranded at second base.
Molski broke up Everts' perfect game with a leadoff double in the fourth. No Plover player reached base again until Molski walked with two outs in the sixth. Everts also struck out nine and walked just one.
Clintonville's Greg Sunita drove in the opening run of the game, a first inning single that scored Steve Everts.
In the fourth, an infield error allowed Steve Everts to reach and he scored on a Sunita RBI double. Then with two outs and runners on the corners, Gary Sunita hit a grounder to second, forcing Ryan Morow at second base. Greg Sunita scored from third on the fielder's choice play for what would be the last run of the game.
Plover pitcher Brett Dickey, who gave up three runs (one earned), walked one and struck out none.
"He kept us in the game," Mattmiller said.
Dickey got out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth inning, thanks to a quick throw from catcher Tom Drohner. With two outs, Drohner picked off Greg Sunita at first base to end the inning.