Season comes to a sudden end for Hoppers thanks to Fennimore
Westin Marx rounds third base and heads for home on a double by Cael Koenig during the second inning of the Hoppers 11-0 win over Fennimore this past Saturday. He is being waved home by third base coach Drew Bode. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Home plate umpire Bill Hannah rules Noah Pedretti safe on a steal of home during an at-bat by Blake Reynolds. Abe Amundson waits on-deck in the background. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
By Derick Kelly
The Prairie du Chien Grasshoppers entered their Class A Regional Tournament looking to advance to the state tournament for the third time in the last five seasons.
To do so, the Hoppers would have to win three games in two days. The four-team regional became a three-team regional when Stoddard withdrew due to not having enough players. Their 16U team competed at the 16U State Tournament in Onalaska at the same time. The withdrawal meant a change to the regional schedule.
Instead of starting the tournament this past Friday, July 25, the Hoppers began the tournament on Saturday afternoon against Fennimore Post 184, and the Hoppers offense came out firing. Having lost the coin toss to determine the home team, Prairie du Chien wasted little time in game one, scoring twice in the top of the first inning and three times in the top of the second inning to take a 5-0 lead.
The Hoppers quickly added two more runs in the top of the fourth and four more runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 11-0.
Starting pitcher Bryce Lenzendorf allowed zero runs on just three hits and three walks in 5.0 innings pitched with three strikeouts as he earned a complete game victory.
Fennimore bounced back in game two of the tournament to defeat Gays Mills 10-2. Day one ended with the Hoppers taking on Gays Mills.
Prairie was once again the visiting team and the offense picked up where it ended in game one. The Hoppers pushed two runs across in the top of the first and one in the top of the second to go up 3-0 on the Grizzlies.
Prairie du Chien would add a pair of three-run innings in the fourth and sixth inning before a final run in the seventh inning to make the score 10-0.
Blake Reynolds kept the stellar pitching going for the Hoppers as he gave up no runs on just one hit and two walks with eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings pitched to earn the complete game shutout.
With the win, PdC eliminated Gays Mills and advanced to a Sunday rematch with Fennimore.
The Hoppers entered day two needing only one more win in order to advance to this week’s Class A State Tournament in Westby. Fennimore, who had advanced to the WIAA state tournament last month for the first time in school history, needed to defeat PdC twice to advance to their third Class A State Tournament and first since 2023.
Prairie du Chien lost the coin toss for a third consecutive game and were the visiting team. The Hoppers got on the scoreboard first with a run in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. The score would remain 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth inning when Fennimore erupted for four runs to take a 4-1 lead. Following a scoreless fifth inning by both teams, the Hoppers scored three times in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game at 4-4 and give Prairie du Chien new life.
That new life would not last for long as Fennimore answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning to go up 7-4. The Hoppers were unable to answer in the top of the seventh inning. Fennimore defeated Prairie to force a second game.
Game two saw the Hoppers win the coin toss and become the home team for the first time all weekend. Fennimore scored once in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0 but the Hoppers responded in the bottom of the inning with two runs to go up 2-1 after one inning. The starting pitching for both teams settled down over the next two and a half innings before the Hoppers scored three times to make the score 5-1 in favor of PdC. That lead would not last long however as Fennimore scored five times in the top of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead.
Both teams went scoreless in the next two half innings before Prairie du Chien got a run across in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game up at 6-6. The Hoppers were unable to take advantage of bases loaded with two outs and the game remained tied going into the seventh inning.
Unfortunately for the Hoppers, the seventh inning belonged to Fennimore, who used some key hitting and some unfortunate defensive miscues by Prairie du Chien to score eight runs in the inning, highlighted by a three-run home run by Ethan Sheckler with two outs that made the score 14-6.
The Hoppers got a leadoff walk by Brady Lenzendorf in the bottom of the seventh but that was all the offense they could get as the Hoppers ended their season with an overall record of 20-10 and just shy of a return trip to the Wisconsin American Legion Baseball Class A State Tournament.
The Hoppers will host the 2026 Class A State Tournament, which will be the fourth time in program history with 2005, 2016 and 2023 being the other three occasions.
PdC Varsity Legion Box Scores
Prairie du Chien 11, Fennimore 0.
Prairie du Chien 230 24x x – 11 14 0
Fennimore 000 00x x – 0 3 0
WP: Bryce Lenzendorf
SO: Lenzendorf 3.
BB: Lenzendorf 3.
Top hitters: Cael Koenig 3x4, 2 2B, two runs scored, four RBIS; Noah Pedretti 2x3, 2B, BB, three runs scored, one RBI; Bryce Lenzendorf 2x3, BB, one RBI; Westin Marx 2x3, two runs scored; Carter Tonne 2x3, two runs scored, one RBI.
Prairie du Chien 10, Gays Mills 0.
Prairie du Chien 210 303 0 – 10 13 1
Gays Mills 000 000 0 – 0 1 3
WP: Blake Reynolds.
SO: Reynolds 8.
BB: Reynolds 2.
Top hitters: Bryce Lenzendorf 3x4, two runs scored; Brady Lenzendorf 2x4, three RBIs; Pedretti 2x5, two runs scored, one RBI; Koenig 2x4, two runs scored, two RBI; Abe Amundson 1x3, 2B, BB, two runs scored, Jack Simmons 1x3, one RBI; Tonne 1x4, one run scored, one RBI.
Fennimore 7, Prairie du Chien 4.
Prairie du Chien 100 003 0 – 4 8 2
Fennimore 000 403 x – 7 5 2
LP: Amundson.
SO: Amundson (3.2 inn.) 2, Tonne (1.2 inn.) 1, Pedretti (0.2 inn.) 2.
BB: Amundson 3, Tonne 4, Pedretti 0.
Top hitters: Bryce Lenzendorf 3x4, one run scored; Koenig 2x4, 2B; Reynolds 1x2, 2B, one run scored, one RBI; Brady Lenzendorf 1x3, two RBIs).
Fennimore 14, Prairie du Chien 6.
Fennimore 100 050 8 – 14 14 2
Prairie du Chien 200 301 0 – 6 6 3
LP: Tonne.
SO: Koenig (6.0 inn.) 8, Tonne 1, Brady Lenzendorf (1.0 inn.) 0.
BB: Koenig 2, Tonne 0, Lenzendorf 0.
Top hitters: Bryce Lenzendorf 2x3, BB, one run scored, one RBI; Brady Lenzendorf 1x3, 2B, BB, one RBI; Tonne 1x4, 2B, one run scored, one RBI; Marx 1x2, 3B, BB, one run scored, one RBI.
Prairie du Chien Final Record: 20-10.
