Posted: July 13, 2010 |(0) Comments

"That's what I like, a one-inning win."

Those were the comments of Brown Deer senior pitcher Joey Mattefs in the school parking lot after the Falcons got a two-out RBI single from Danny Korpela in the bottom of the eighth to beat Wauwatosa West, 8-7, in the completion of a suspended game Tuesday night.

The victory came just minutes after Brown Deer lost a frustrating 3-2 regularly scheduled decision to Cudahy. The split left the Falcons with a final record of 12-12 in Woodland Conference play and 15-14 overall while Cudahy guarenteed itself no worse than a share of the Woodland Blue Division title at 17-5 (22-13 overall).

Mattefs pitched a scoreless top of the eighth inning in the suspended game, which had been postponed by storms last month. Mattefs started the frame with one out, and gave up a walk to Alex Rehl and an infield single to Tyler Gross.

But then he made a nice snare off a high one-hopper off the bat of Sean Aiken, whirling and starting a crisp inning-ending 1-6-3 doubleplay with shortstop Chris Smith making the neat pivot at second base.

Smith has done a fine job in replacing the injured Jake Schimenz, said Brown Deer coach Mike Donahue.

"It's great to have an athlete of that caliber slip into that role," Donahue said. Smith was a NOW All-Suburban running back in football last fall.

Then Mattefs was instrumental in finally getting the Falcons the win in the bottom of the frame, as he started a two-out rally by pulling a walk. After Mattefs stole second, Korpela reached out and hit a short flare to left that the Trojan outfielder missed by barely two feet. The play at the plate was not close.

Donahue said that the eighth inning rally completed a stellar comeback that started a month ago just before the game was suspended.

"I think we were down five at one point before we came back," he said. "It was good that the guys were able to stay up for this one."

The victory also got the sour taste out of the mouth of the Falcons after the discouraging way the Cudahy game ended.

Brown Deer had picked up a 2-0 lead in the second, after Sean Andryauskas hit a shot at the shortstop that couldn't be handled cleanly. Both Dylan Coleman (single) and Kyle Okray (double) scored easily.

But that would be it for the Falcons, as they left the bases full in both the first and fifth innings against Cudahy starter and winner Joe Jagler (seven strikeouts, two walks and one hit batsmen).

Ben Rejniak got the Packers to within 2-1 in the fourth with an RBI groundout that scored Ryan Citro, who had earlier doubled off Falcon reliever Okray.

Then in the fifth, a single, an error and a fielder's choice RBI off the bat of Matt Gowin tied the score.

The game was then decided on a couple of close plays in the sixth and the seventh. In the top of the sixth, the Packers Kris Zarek singled and stole second. The Falcons were said to have committed interference on the play at second as the throw got away. Zarek was subsequently awarded third base. Donahue obviously didn't agree with the call.

"He (Zarek) was on top of our guy, how could it be interference?" he said.

That call became huge just a batter later, as Rejniak hit a hard fly ball to center that Zarek tagged and scored on. Donahue and the rest of the Falcon bench thought that Zarek left early, but the umpires did not agree and Cudahy had a 3-2 lead.

Brown Deer got a runner to third in the bottom of the sixth but a pop-up to Jagler ended the threat.

Then in the seventh, the Falcons had a runner on second with one out, but Jagler whirled and got a critical pick-off to clean the bases.

He then struck out Mattefs to end the game.

"I was 100 percent sure that the runner left early," Donahue said of Zarek's tag. "It's just unfortunate that the game came down to that, because we had some opportunities that we didn't take advantage of."

Okray took the loss in relief of Drew Worth.