MEQUON 鈥 Paul Nuetzel benefited from the basepath parade.
Nuetzel tossed five solid outings and Homestead parlayed a steady stream of baserunners into a 12-6 victory Wednesday over Slinger in a North Shore Conference baseball game.
Nuetzel allowed three runs 鈥 all in the third 鈥 on four hits in five innings to get the victory. The senior righthander struck out nine and walked three.
"I struggled a little bit," Nuetzel said of the third inning. "Overall, not as well as I wish I would have, but I thought I did pretty decent."
Homestead had nine hits, but also benefited from six walks, two hit batters, and five Slinger errors. The Highlanders also stole eight bases.
"That鈥檚 our plan. If we get guys on, we鈥檙e going to be aggressive and we鈥檙e going to run," Homestead head coach Jason Kosanke said. "That鈥檚 something we work a lot on in practice, base running and stealing.
"In high school baseball, if you can get runners into scoring position, now you鈥檙e one hit away," he added. "So, it鈥檚 really something we emphasize. Occasionally we鈥檙e going to make mistakes, we did have one guy picked off tonight, but on the whole, a lot of pluses there."
The Highlanders jumped out to a 5-0 lead with a run in the first and four more in the second.
After the lengthy second, Nuetzel struggled with his command in the third. The Owls loaded the bases on two walks and a single, followed by a booming three-run double to deep center by Mac Wagner.
"The layoff didn鈥檛 help, but we also know that one of the cardinal sins is you can鈥檛 walk nine to get back to the top," Kosanke said. "That鈥檚 about the only nitpicking thing I can say about his start, don鈥檛 walk the nine batter."
But the Highlanders answered with a four-spot in the bottom half. Homestead loaded the bases on a leadoff double by Ryan Apel and a pair of walks. With two outs, Griffin Bowers grounded up the middle, but the ball hit the bag at second, preventing any possible play from being made and scoring two runs to make it 7-3. Grant Poindexter made it 9-3 with a two-run single down the right-field line.
Homestead made it 11-3 in the fifth on another run-scoring single by Bowers and a run-scoring wild pitch.
Slinger pulled within 11-6 with three runs in the sixth off reliever Will Kons. Matt Retzlaff drew a bases-loaded walk, Chase Leverance had an RBI single, and Blake Johnson added an RBI ground out.
The Highlanders got a run back in the bottom half when Nuetzel doubled, advanced on a single and came home on an errant throw to second on a stolen base.
Lucas Wirth finished up with a scoreless seventh for the Highlanders.
Slinger starter Jackson Naber allowed nine runs, five earned, on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings. Izak Zimdars came on and allowed three runs, two earned on five hits over the final 3 1/3.
鈥淚鈥檓 proud of him that he found it later on,鈥 Slinger head coach Brandon Nelson said of Naber. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a junior, but this is his first year at varsity. He鈥檚 kind of getting his feet wet in the starter role. He was right in there. A couple mistakes here and there, or he鈥檚 right in the game.鈥
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 pretty, but it was gritty. I think he did as good as he could do, once he figured it out. This experience is going to be really good for him in the long run.鈥
Homestead finished out the week with a 13-2 triumph over Port Washington in a league game Friday to improve to 5-1 in the NSC. The Highlanders then dropped a pair of games Saturday 鈥 6-3 to Waukesha West and 1-0 to New Berlin Eisenhower 鈥 and are 6-4 overall. Up next for the team is a game Wednesday against Grafton. First pitch at Rennicke Field is set for 4:45 p.m.