By Adam Roberts – 6/17/2021
I had to wait until the Central-Sauk Prairie game wrapped up this afternoon to write this piece, but I can now confirm that the Coulee Region will have a number of representatives in both the baseball and softball sectionals next week.
With the Riverhawks’ 4-0 win today, they win their first regional championship since 2017 (thanks to Eric Lee from the Tribune for that tidbit of info!) and wrap up an impressive list of area teams that will look to take the next step towards state next week. Between yesterday and today, there are now eight area teams still alive, with Onalaska set to play this afternoon in the regional finals against 2-seed Baraboo and try to become team number nine.
Yesterday the baseball regional finals saw an area one-seed sent packing with Sparta’s 9-6 upset win over West Salem (the Spartans entered the postseason with a 5-13 record by the way), a near upset in La Crosse that required a 7-run inning from Aquinas to survive a valiant push by Westby, and another minor road upset with Bangor defeating De Soto. Meanwhile Holmen softball blanked Baraboo 12-0, seven-seed Arcadia finished off Neillsville, Blair-Taylor survived against Auburndale, and Luther needed extras but got the job done against two-seed Waterloo.
If the Hilltoppers take care of business today against Baraboo, that will set up another great Central-Onalaska rivalry matchup that for awhile has been confined to the basketball court. Overall, the odds seem pretty high that at least one area team will get through the day either Monday or Tuesday next week.