Sports

LACROSSE — Of all the terrific Middleton baseball teams in recent years — and there have been plenty — this wasn’t the one expected to break the drought.

There was just one starter back from the 2022 team that reached the sectional semifinals. There were no proven commodities on the mound. And as skipper Brent Jorgensen examined his roster back in March, he was left with a bevy of questions and very few answers.

Yet there were the 2023 Cardinals dancing, laughing, smiling and embracing one another at beautiful Copeland Park on Tuesday evening. This team that few thought would excel three short months ago continued a season that’s been surprising, rewarding and exhilarating.

Middleton toppled Verona, 3-1, in a WIAA Division 1 sectional final and earned the school’s first trip to the state tournament since 2016. The Cardinals, who were seeded fourth in their sectional, improved to 22-8 and continued their stunning postseason run.

LA CROSSE — From the time Brent Jorgensen passed out uniforms this spring, Middleton’s manager knew there was a formula that would allow his Cardinals have a big year.

Middleton wasn’t blessed with big boppers or dominant arms. So the Cardinals’ path to success involved small ball, great defense and never flinching in tight games.

Now, that recipe has Middleton one game from state.

The Cardinals defeated Sun Prairie West, 4-3, in a WIAA Division 1 sectional semifinal Tuesday at Copeland Park in La Crosse. Middleton improved to 21-8 overall and moved within one game of its first state tournament since 2016.

“The guys work so hard. They put in a lot,” Jorgensen said. “They do all those small things that make a difference in the game, things that people watching the game don't always see or understand. They do all those small things and it makes a difference.”

Sacrifice flies. Bunting. Moving runners over. And high-level fielding.

Middleton’s boys tennis team is undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the state.

The Cardinals are heavy favorites to win the first state championship in school history.

But head coach Henry Johnson — who led Middleton to a 19-0 start — won’t be along for the rest of the journey.

Johnson was fired on May 22 after angering what he said was “the wrong parent.”

Johnson sat one of Middleton’s doubles players at the Big Eight Conference meet on May 17-18 because that player had called two of his teammates “scum bags” at practice the previous week. The disciplinary action was for the conference meet only.

That decision started a chain of events in which athletic director Jamie Sims added MHS girls coach Matt Given and former boys coach Tony Mirasola to Johnson’s staff. Johnson says when he voiced concern over that plan, and told Sims he didn’t feel supported, he was terminated.

PRAIRIE DU SAC – Finn Patenaude was on a mission.

Nothing could stop the Middleton senior, who nearly had a perfect evening, sweeping both hurdles titles and running a leg on the Cardinals’ runner-up 1,600-meter relay at the WIAA Division 1 sectional track and field meet at Sauk Prairie’s Eagles Stadium last Thursday.

Middleton nearly captured the sectional team title as well, coming up one point short with 85 points behind La Crosse Central’s 86 points, which drew a sigh of disappointment from Patenaude.

“We lost by a point, dang it,” Patenaude exclaimed. “But I’m going to state in three events. I knew it would happen.”

The top three finishers in each event advanced to the WIAA Division 1 state meet, which will be held June 2-3 at Veterans’ Memorial Stadium in La Crosse.

PRAIRIE DU SAC – Senior Zaira Malloy-Salgado crossed the finish line at Sauk Prairie’s Eagles’ Stadium last Thursday night, using a strong kick to win the 1,600-meter run at the WIAA Division 1 Sauk Prairie Sectional.

Nearly 90 minutes later, Malloy-Salgado finished second to freshman teammate Olivia Chellevold in the 3,200, literally passing the baton to the next generation of elite Cardinals’ distance runners.

Following the race, it was quickly obvious there was a mutual admiration society and a true friendship between the elite distance runners representing the past, present and future at Middleton.

“Honestly, it’s been so inspiring, and she’s helped me so much during races,” Malloy-Salgado said of Chellevold. “It’s great to see where the future of the Middleton track and cross country program is going, and to know it is in good hands and fast hands, of course.”

The rivalry has always been intense.

The last three postseasons, it’s simply grown.

The softball teams from Middleton and Verona have met in each of the last three postseasons. And after splitting the last two years, the Wildcats got the upper hand this season.

In a WIAA Division 1 regional final on May 25, host Verona jumped out to a 3-0, held off a Middleton rally and edged the Cardinals, 4-2.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats advanced to face top-seeded Sun Prairie East in a sectional semifinal that was played Tuesday. Fifth-seeded Middleton finished the year 18-10.

“We have now faced Verona in each of the last three postseasons,” said Middleton coach Brittany Carl, whose team lost to Verona in 2021 and downed the Wildcats in 2022. “A lot of credit to (Verona coach) Todd Anderson.

Janesville Craig was a perfect 22-0.

The Cougars had won 13 of those games by at least 10 runs. And the closest anyone had come to defeating Craig came on April 27, when Sun Prairie West dropped a 5-2 decision.

But Middleton blew those numbers up on May 23.

The Cardinals traveled to Craig and downed the Cougars, 2-1, for their biggest win of the regular season.

Middleton improved to 17-7 overall and 14-5 in the Big Eight Conference. Top-ranked Craig fell to 22-1, 18-1.

“It seemed like every inning there was a moment that could have gone either way to determine the eventual outcome of the game,” Middleton manager Brent Jorgensen said. “Our guys showed poise, confidence, and determination to turn most of those moments in our favor.”

As happy was Jorgensen was, Craig skipper Josh Shere was equally upset.

“We didn't play very good baseball,” Shere said. “We made a lot of mistakes we usually don't make.

Twenty four hours before their biggest meet of the season, Middleton boys golf coach Tom Cabalka knew just what to expect.

“It’s going to be incredibly close,” Cabalka said of Tuesday’s WIAA Division 1 Waunakee Sectional. “There are four or five outstanding teams. It will probably come down to a shot or two.”

Cabalka was spot on.

Unfortunately, his Cardinals were on the wrong side of that score.

Host Waunakee won the eight-team sectional held at The Meadows of Six Mile with a 310, while Middleton and Holmen tied for second at 317. Only the top two teams go to state, so the Cardinals and Vikings headed to a playoff hole.

When there’s a playoff in high school golf, all 10 players from the two teams play the same hole at once — and count the four best scores per side. Middleton and Holmen returned to No. 1, where the Vikings then edged the Cardinals, 17-18, in the playoff.

The postseason couldn’t have arrived any sooner for the Middleton Cardinals’ softball team.

Sophomore right-hander Megan Button tossed a two-hit shutout, and second baseman Mackenzie Zimmerman had three hits to power a 14-hit attack as fifth-seeded Middleton routed 12^th-seeded Onalaska, 12-0, in five innings due to the mercy rule at Firefighters’ Memorial Park on Tuesday.

“This is the first mercy rule win we had all season,” Middleton manager Brittany Carl said. “So I love having it in the postseason. They chose that mentality of ‘We’re not done yet.’ ”

After a disappointing performance in the Cardinals’ final regular season game – an 11-3 loss to visiting Janesville Parker last Saturday – the bounce-back victory was just what Middleton needed to ignite what it hopes is a long playoff run.

It was a hectic stretch of five games in six days for Middleton’s baseball team, which heads into the final week of the regular season in search of some positive momentum with the postseason on deck.

Middleton which earned a No. 4 seed in the WIAA Division 1 La Crosse Sectional, capped off a rollercoaster week, dropping a 3-2 heartbreaker at Columbus in a non-conference game last Saturday.

The Cardinals’ highlight of the week, though, was a bounce-back 8-2 victory at Verona last Friday night, putting a damper on Verona’s ‘Senior Night.’

Middleton (16-7, 13-5 Big Eight) rebounded from a miserable 11-2 loss at home to Verona the previous day.

The Cardinals also topped Sun Prairie West 5-1 on May 16 behind junior right-hander Kevin Sheehan’s four-hit complete game and a monster 3-for-3 performance from senior first baseman Alden Cleary.

Payback was indeed sweet, though, after the Wildcats had dealt Middleton arguably its worst loss of the season.