Non-League: A’s win 2 of 3 over the weekend

A win and a rainout Saturday night, coupled with a Sunday split gave the Sheboygan A’s a 2-1 weekend and upped their season mark to 3-1.

A strong pitching effort by Brandon Magee and Sam Mattheis steered the A’s to a 3-1 win over West Allis in Saturday night’s opener. The second game was rained out in the fourth inning with West Allis holding a 5-2 lead.

On Sunday the A’s failed to recover from a 4-0 first inning hole in the first game and lost 8-6 to the Northern Illinois Legends. Taylor Ditter was sharp in his first start for the A’s and recorded his first victory as the A’s cruised in with a 7-2 win in the nightcap.

Saturday, Sheboygan 3, West Allis 1.
Magee, making his first mound appearance since leaving the Gary Railcats of the Independent Northern League with an injury in 2010 was solid, striking out five in his five innings to earn the win. Sam Mattheis pitched two scoreless innings of relief to get the save. Consecutive hits by Luke Maldonado, Harry Steldt and Chad Langley pushed over two first inning runs and the A’s would never trail again.

Sunday, Northern Illinois 8, Sheboygan 6.
Three hits, two walks and an outfield error gave Northern Illinois four first inning runs. The Legends added three more in the third for a 7-0 lead. The A’s battled back and made a game of it, but couldn’t get a big hit as they left the bases loaded in the first, fourth and sixth innings en route to a 12-LOB night. Harry Steldt had three hits in the game and Cole Heili two. Mitch Gardner took the loss.

Sunday, Sheboygan 7, Northern Illinois 2.
Steldt drove in a run with a first inning sacrifice fly and the A’s nursed that 1-0 lead behind Ditter’s strong mound showing until erupting for five runs in the fourth. Heili’s 2-run triple was the big blow in that inning. Langley had three hits and Steldt two. Ditter yielded only four hits and one run in his star.

The A’s are now idle until they travel to Racine for another Langsdorf League game Thursday night. They are home Friday night against Green Bay, the defending Northeastern Wisconsin League champion.