Sports

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.

The postseason could be one of the most thrilling in school history for Middleton’s boys tennis team.

And the Cardinals kicked it off in style by winning the Big Eight Conference meet held last Wednesday and Thursday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.

Middleton advanced to the finals at all seven flights, won five individual titles and finished with a league-best 19 points. Madison West was second with 16 points and Madison Memorial was third with 11.

“The team fought when they were down, and did so extremely well,” said Middleton coach Henry Johnson, whose team is ranked No. 1 in the state. “We were not at full physical strength, but the guys did well enough to bring home the team title, so I am proud of what we accomplished.”

Middleton has qualified for the WIAA Division 1 state tournament 14 times in school history and finished second on four occasions. The Cardinals have never won a state title, though.

Middleton’s track teams competed at the Madison East Regional Monday.

The Cardinals’ boys finished second and Middleton’s girls were fourth.

The top four finishers in each event advanced to Thursday’s Sauk Prairie Sectional.

Here are the Middleton athletes that advanced to sectionals.

BOYS

• Finn Patenaude won the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles.

• Gavyn Hurley won the long jump.

• KJ Peterson won the shot put and was fourth in the discus.

• Middleton’s quartet of Emre Gunay, Matthew Arnold, Cameron Swapsy and Patenaude was second in the 1,600-meter relay.

• Harper Fahey was second in the 800-meter run.

• Gunay was third in the 400-meter dash.

• William Whiteis was third in the 3,200-meter run.

• Middleton’s 800-meter relay team of Arnold, Corben Falk, Caleb Haverberg and Hurley was fourth.

The road will be brutal, packed with one potential pothole after another.

Middleton girls soccer coach Mary Duffy loves her team, though.

And Duffy believes the Cardinals are prepared to navigate any rocky roads that come their way.

Middleton received the No. 6 seed in its sectional and begins the postseason by hosting 11^th-seeded Badger in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal Tuesday at 7 p.m. If the Cardinals win there, they would face either third-seeded Verona or 14^th-seeded Beloit Memorial in a regional final on June 3.

“I have been saying to the girls the past few games that we need to stay focused so that we can get a home game to start off our playoffs,” Duffy said. “And they all see the value in that.”

Middleton was supposed to face Badger in its season-opener this year. The game was postponed, though, and never made up.

Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time moments. 

Or in the case of Dain Johnson, they make big-time putts.

Johnson, a standout junior golfer at Middleton, drilled a long par putt at No. 18 Monday during the WIAA Division 1 Madison Memorial Regional held at Blackhawk Country Club. Memorial senior Charlie Erlandson then missed his par putt.

That sequence of events allowed the Cardinals to win the regional title, 297-298, over the Spartans. Middleton’s 297-team score was its second-lowest of the season.

“Our guys seemed to be more focused and it was fun to see some really good play,” Middleton coach Tom Cabalka said. “A 297 is a great team score.”

The top four teams advanced to Tuesday’s Waunakee Sectional, which will be held at The Meadows of Six Mile Creek. That meant Middleton, Madison Memorial, Waunakee (312) and Madison West (330) moved on, while Mount Horeb (332), Verona (333), Sauk Prairie (343) and Madison East (422) fell short.

It was a beautiful day for a baseball game on Monday afternoon at Middleton High School, a sun-splashed kind of day that the late great Hall of Famer Ernie Banks would have exclaimed ‘Let’s play two’.

And while the Ninth Annual ‘Cardinals Strike Out Cancer’ game between host Middleton and visiting Sun Prairie East was only a seven-inning matchup featuring two of the elite programs in the Big Eight Conference, the event accomplished its primary goal.

That was to raise funds to support American Family Children’s Hospital pediatric cancer research.

“I think it helps our players to realize they are pretty blessed to have their health,” said Lori Hellenbrand, chairperson of the event. “A lot of us have been affected by cancer in one way or another. So watching family members go through that, this has a special place in our hearts to raise funds to hopefully find some cures so families don’t have to continue to go through that.”

Practice makes perfect. Or, in Madilyn Vander Sanden’s case, the practice of positive thinking.

The senior thrower on the Middleton girls track and field team had a message for herself before last Friday night’s Big Eight Conference Championships at Otto Breitenbach Stadium.

“You’ll do amazing,” she said of what that message was. “It’s just something that you have to keep telling yourself or else you’re not going to do great.”

She was right — she did do amazing.

Vander Sanden swept both throwing events, winning the shot put with a mark of 37 feet, 9 inches before later in the night claiming the discus title with a personal record toss of 118-8.

Her 20 points in those two events helped propel Middleton to a runner-up showing with 120 points. Verona won the meet with 149 points and Madison Memorial was third at 113.5.

A year ago at this time, Finn Patenaude was on the path to the WIAA Division 1 state track and field championships in the 110 meter hurdles.

Now that he’s charted the way, he wants to get back and make it out of preliminaries and into the finals, something he didn’t accomplish in his first go-round.

And he’s on the right track.

The Middleton senior was the Cardinals only two-event winner last Friday night at Otto Breitenbach Stadium during the Big Eight Conference Championships, claiming first in the 110 and 300 hurdles to help his team to a second place with 97 points. Verona took the top spot with 128 points while Madison Memorial was third with 82.5

But more importantly to Patenaude was the mental takeaway from his efforts, not necessarily how he finished. 

Middleton’s girls softball team had a wild week that saw it travel 230 miles to the north, play teams from all over the state and go 3-3 overall.

Here’s a recap of the Cardinals’ wild week:

• Middleton 4, Beloit 0 — Megan Button threw a complete game, four-hit shutout as the Cardinals cruised past the host Purple Knights on May 9.

Button struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. She also was the beneficiary of some stellar defense.

“Megan threw a great game and we made some unbelievable plays on defense,” Middleton coach Brittany Carl said. “Maggie Zumbrunnen was phenomenal at shortstop with two diving plays, while Mackenzie Zimmerman had second base locked down across from her. Good defense and timely hitting made the long road trip home much more pleasant.”

Annika Jefferis led the offense with two hits and two RBI, while Button also had two RBI.

WAUNAKEE – Some games are best put in the rearview mirror as quickly as possible.

So while Middleton’s 4-1 loss at Waunakee last Saturday in a non-conference prep girls soccer match on the Warrior Pitch was difficult to take for the visiting Cardinals, coach Mary Duffy put the rivalry game in perspective.

“We have to move forward and put that game behind us,” said Duffy, after Middleton wrapped up a difficult four-game stretch with a 2-1-1 record that included a 3-0 victory over Madison Memorial on May 9 and a 1-1 tie with Verona on May 11. “We can use the information that it gave us for the postseason, but we need to have short memories so we can focus on the three big games coming up this week.”