SHULLSBURG – Senior pitcher Matt Cook fired a two-hit shutout and senior first baseman Nathan Hendrickson homered and drove in four run as #2-ranked Shullsburg/Benton wrapped up a perfect season in the Six Rivers with an 11-0 victory over Black Hawk in a make-up baseball game at Badger Park on Wednesday, May 22.
    Kyle Hoppman went 3-for-3 and scored three times with one RBI and Pierce Russell was 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and a RBI to help the Miner-Zephyrs (19-1 overall, 16-0 overall) finish off the regular season with their 18th consecutive victory.
    Hoppman got the scoring going early on when he opened the bottom of the first with a single, stole second and came in to score on a pair of throwing errors during his steal attempt. Hendrickson plated two runs on a sacrifice bunt later in the first to put the hosts up 3-0.
    S/B tacked on four runs in the second to go ahead 7-0. Russell doubled in a run, and the other three scored on a passed ball, an error and a balk.
    Second baseman Nick Soppe brought in two more runs in the third on another two-RBI sacrifice bunt for the hosts, while Hendrickson belted a solo home run in the fourth to make it 11-0.
    With all the run support, Cook got in a groove on the mound, yielding just two hits and a walk while striking out six batters to cruise to the win
    Black Hawk third baseman Coltin Piefer accounted for both the Warriors’ hits with singles in the second and fifth innings.
    The top-seeded Miner-Zephyrs hosted Pecatonica in a regional semifinal game on Tuesday. (The outcome was not known at press time.) The winner advances to meet either #2-seed Barneveld or #6-seed Belmont in the regional championship game at the home of the highest remaining seed on Wednesday, May 29.
    Black Hawk played #4-seed Albany in a regional semifinal game on Tuesday. The winner moved on to face either #2-seed Catholic Central or #3-seed Williams Bay in the regional championship game at the home of the highest remaining seed on Wednesday, May 29.
    Sectionals will be held in Barneveld on Tuesday, June 4, with the semifinal game scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and the finals will start at 4 p.m.

Black Hawk… 000  00 –   0    2  3
Shulls/Bent… 343  1x – 11  11  0
Leading Hitters: BH– Coltin Piefer 2x2. S/B– Kyle Hoppman 3x3, Pierce Russell 3x3. HR- Nathan Hendrickson. 2B- Hoppman, Russell (2), Connor Crotty.
WP- Matt Cook. LP- Merik Meythaler.
At Shullsburg, on Wednesday, May 22