MEQUON — Before the bottom of the fifth inning, Thiensville-Mequon manager Greg Ebbert had a pretty simple message for his club.
“We need baserunners,” he said before the players entered the dugout.
It took until two were out in the frame to get anyone on base in that inning, although the first two batters hit the ball hard, but the Twins’ offense came to life in a big way.
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Nine consecutive batters reached base, courtesy of six singles and three errors, and the Twins rallied for seven runs on the way to earning an 11-2 victory Tuesday over Hustisford in a Rock River Baseball League game at Rennicke Field.
“I think that was just coincidental,” Ebbert said about the timing of a game-changing rally. “Some things happened and they helped us. We got a lot of help that kind of opened things up. Yeah, things all went real well.”
Before the offensive onslaught, the Twins were the victim of some unfortunate breaks to start the inning. The home side trailed 2-0 entering the frame, then Cade Berendt hit a ball up the middle and was called out on a close play at first. Vince Cameranesi followed and smacked a rocket right at Hustisford third baseman Brody Thimm for the second out.
The next nine batters would all reach base.
“That’s kind of the way it works,” Ebbert said about a stretch in which the Twins went from having two close calls to start the inning to a sequence in which everyone in the lineup reached base after that as the club took a commanding lead. “You get a guys relaxing a little bit and you got guys on base and sometimes things just start happening.”
The surge began when Sam Cameranesi hit the ball hard at Hustisford second baseman Josh Hennen. It was a line drive that went as an error, but it got the ball rolling. Ryan Quello also reached on an error, this time when the Astros’ shortstop could not make a play.
The Twins got on the scoreboard with a run-scoring single up the middle by Jimmy Doedens, which allowed Sam Cameranesi to trot home. Cole Hessler then reached on an error, which allowed Quello to cross home plate with the tying run.
Then, the hit parade began. Luke Scheuerlein and Easton Oliver hit singles that landed in nearly identical spots. The first hit allowed Doedens to score the go-ahead run and the second hit allowed Hessler to score. Jerome Pawlak followed with a run-scoring single to center.
Berendt was next. The first baseman fouled off a few two-strike offerings before smacking a two-run single to center, which made it 7-2.
“I know Cade likes to play. He normally doesn’t bat much for us, but he’s the kind of guy that’ll do anything to put the bat on the ball,” Ebbert said. “He’s a pitcher first, but you see it up there, he’s battling, just fouling pitches off and all of a sudden, you get a pitch and get a base hit.”
The Twins took the lead with that big inning, but it was the work that Trusky and the Thiensville-Mequon defense did over the first several stanzas that allowed the club to take get ahead on the scoreboard.
The visitors put two runners on base in the opening inning, but Aidan Trusky worked out of the jam to keep the game scoreless. After a clean second frame, Hustisford threatened again in the third. Three straight singles gave the guests the lead, but Deven Michalak flew out to right field and then Pawlak threw home from right field and Vince Cameranesi made a great tag at the plate to complete an inningending double play to limit the damage.
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“The tag was excellent,” Ebbert said. Matt Mueller led off the next inning with a home run off the scoreboard that made it 2-0, but things could have been worse at that point. The Twins manager noted that Trusky only walked one batter over six innings, and coupled with a strong defensive effort behind him, bought the team time to rally.
“We made the plays in the field when we had to. And simply, we threw enough strikes and didn’t just give them free passes,” Ebbert said. “There were sometimes where maybe it was 3-2, threw a pitch and rather than walking a guy, we got the outs.”
Jack Durst came on in the seventh inning and recorded a save with three scoreless frames.
“He threw pretty well here, especially the fastball,” Ebbert said. “I was glad to see with him going more for fastballs than breaking balls that weren’t over the plate. It forced the guys to actually hit the ball rather than taking breaking balls that weren’t strikes.”
The Twins added some insurance runs in the seventh. Scheuerlein hit a leadoff double to start the inning, then scored on a throwing error when Hessler reached on an infield single. Three batters later, Vince Cameranesi crushed a two-run homer to center.
The Twins backstop had two hits, but made good contact in each of his last three trips to the plate.
“He’s been struggling about as bad as you ever could struggle, and three straight at-bats he ripped shots. One was the line drive to third base, the other was a base hit and then he hit that home run,” Ebbert said. “All of a sudden, it looked like, boom, it’s easy to hit. His dad just told me that he made a couple suggestions to him before that.”
The skipper added that it was a much-needed confidence boost for the eighth batter in the Twins lineup.
“He’s got a great attitude. When he was struggling, he was striking out almost every bat, you could see he’s really questioning himself,” Ebbert said. “His head was off the ball and the more he struck out, the harder he was swinging. Hopefully this gets him back because we need his bat big time.”
The home team added a tally in the eighth inning when Scheuerlein hit a double that allowed Doedens to score after the center fielder opened the frame with a well-placed single to left.
It was a timely victory for the Twins, who moved to 8-6 on the season and sole possession of third place in the Northern Division. The Astros are now in fourth place at 7-7, while Brownsville and Oakfield are each 6-7.
Thiensville-Mequon has two games left in the regular season, Friday at home against Kewaskum — the game was originally scheduled to be played in West Bend but has been changed — and then Sunday at 1 p.m. at Saukville.
“Four teams that play the first weekend,” Ebbert said about the playoff picture behind top-seed Hartford (11-2) and Kewaskum, who is second at 12-3. Both those clubs have already clinched byes. “If you’re the third or fourth-place team, you’ll get a home game.”
The Rock River postseason gets underway Aug. 1.