After Brookfield Central dropped games to Hamilton and Marquette in the first week in July, it looked like it would take a miracle for the Lancers to win or share the Greater Metro Conference title.
While nobody walked on water, Central did come back from the dead.
The Lancers won six of their final eight GMC games against the likes of contenders Hamilton (1-1), Marquette (1-1) and Menomonee Falls (2-0) and crosstown rival Brookfield East (2-0).
But a few things had to happen for the miracle to be complete.
First, Central beat Falls for the second straight game July 15 to complete its successful final run. But the Lancers needed Hamilton to beat Marquette, which had one less loss, to be assured of sharing the title.
With the latter game still going on about 20 minutes up the road, Jeff Mierow, the father of Central player Mike Mierow, gathered the players around the home plate area after the game as he spoke on a cell phone to a friend at the Hamilton-Marquette game.
Trailing going into the seventh, Hamilton tied the game and went into extra innings, delaying a Central celebration. The elder Mierow then hung up and called back about 20 minutes later and by then the huddle had moved out behind the mound.
Marquette hadn’t scored in the top of the inning and Hamilton had two outs and no one on base when the Chargers tripled and the Lancers went crazy. The Chargers then singled in the winning run and the Central players started a title-sharing celebration by dousing coach Jeff Bigler and yours truly who happened to be standing next to him with bottled water and then jumping on the coach (I stayed away from that part of the celebration).
Now Marquette and Falls needed to win a makeup game against Wauwatosa East and Brookfield East, respectively, the next night, in order to share the title four ways.
Since the Red Raiders and East had seven wins between them, the Hilltoppers and Indians stood a good chance to win out and share the title.
But a sophomore named Danny Sayles of Tosa East and a senior named Justin Wagner of Brook East had something else in mind.
Sayles tossed a complete game, singled twice, homered and drove in three runs in an 8-6 Red Raiders’ win July 16.
The Spartans had to wait until the next day because of heavy rains, but Wagner tossed a three-hitter and defeated the defending champion Indians and ace pitcher Alex Erdmann, 1-0, scoring the game’s only run.
So Central and Hamilton tie for the title with 15-6 records and Falls and Marquette tie for third with 14-7 marks.
When I asked Bigler if he had a message for Granger and Tosa East coach Matt Dahlstrom for helping him out, he said.
"Thank them for playing as hard against them, as they did against us."
Lazarus couldn’t have said it better.
Always remember, be a hit and have a ball!
