GRAND CHUTE – On the night of June 3, it is safe to say not one single member of the Kenoha St. Joseph baseball team thought it would be playing for the WIAA Division 3 state championship Thursday.

The Lancers had lost to Racine St. Catherine’s when the next day, coach Jon Olson got a phone call that St. Cate’s was forced to foreit that game and St. Joseph was back into the postseason.

Just 15 days later, the Lancers found their stride and continued their never-give-up-hope season with a three-run rally in the top of the seventh to  get past defending champion Marathon, 4-2, thanks to Joe Pillizzi’s two-run single for the WIAA Division 3 title at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

“I was looking fastball and was looking to put the ball in play and I got the hit,” Pillizzi said. “We’ve always been a team that comes from behind and takes advantage of our second chance and we did that again today.

“It’s unbelievable. We handed in our uniforms. We had our banquet. Then we get a phone call that says we’re back in the tourney.”

After Pedro Martinez walked to bring Luke Olson in to tie the game, 2-2, Pillizzi delivered an opposite field shot to right field that scored Joe Pignotti and Mike Woods.

“He’ll live this day for the rest of his life and so will the rest of these guys,” St. Joseph coach Jon Olson said.

More impressive all of the scoring came with two outs at the Lancers (19-9) found a way to dethrone the reigning state champions and end their 30-game winning streak.

“We were just missing that big hit with two out,” Olson said. “Sure enough, like the whole postseason has gone, we get the big hit.”

For Marathon (30-2), it seemed to have everything under control with Tyler Hamann on the mound, but after having pitched Wednesday in the state semifinal, lost some control with the final batters he faced.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, the magic that had gotten the Red Raiders this far ran out against Pillizzi on the mound.

“Today, we were beaten by a better team,” Marathon coach Steve Warren said. “They executed better than we did. They hit very well, especially in crucial situations.

“After winning 30 games in a row, this is a humbling game and sometimes the breaks will go against you.”

With the Division 3 trophy, the school’s third in five years, in hand, the talk of having already turned in uniforms once and already had a postseason banquet, coach Olson realized he had to come up with a new speech for another banquet in the coming days.

FULL GAME STATS