GRAND CHUTE – Sometimes it is those difficult, gutsy calls that have the biggest reward that make it that much sweeter.

For Bay Port Thursday night in the WIAA Division 1 state championship game, it as a decision to go for a squeeze bunt with one out and the bases loaded and a 1-2 count that made the difference and led to a 3-2 victory over Wilmot Union at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

“It means the world to me to help bring these seniors a state championship,” said Bay Port junior Zac Peterson on laying down the bunt in the first Division 1 extra-inning championship game since 1990.

Peterson came up with one out and the bases loaded when Bay Port coach Mike Simeons made the call to go for the squeeze bunt and have senior left fielder Josh Jaro barreling toward the plate with the pitch.

“It was an 0-2 count and I never guessed that coach was going to call for another bunt,” Jaro said. “Luckily he threw a nice pitch where ‘Petey’ could hit it and he came through.”

Peterson fouled his first attempt at the squeeze down the first base line. Two pitches later Simeon called for it again and this time Peterson delivered for the Pirates (26-5).

“As the opposing coach I’m sitting in the dugout wondering ‘Should I call it again? Does he think I’m going to call it again?’” Simeon said. “I just tried to cross things up a bit and it happened to work out that time. Not the conventional way to do it with two strikes, but it worked out.

“It was confidence in those two young men and feeling the momentum of the game slipping away from us a little bit. We had the opportunity right there and I knew if we got the bunt down, game over.”

The title is the first team state championship in Bay Port school history. The school’s boys basketball team came close last winter, losing in the state semifinals, and the football team is always a contender, but baseball is the first to win a gold trophy.

“Everybody was rooting for us,” Simeon said. “We’ve been talking for years now, somebody has just got to get it done for the first time and knock that door in.”

For Wilmot Union (24-6) coach Josh Pye, the second attempt at the bunt didn’t surprise him.

“We had scouted them from the first two games and they laid down a few bunts, so we knew they’d probably try it,” Pye said. “We were trying to get the ball up in the zone and the kid still found a way to get on top of it.”

Watching that run come in stings a little bit more after the Panthers rallied with two outs in the top of the seventh to tie the game, 2-2.

“I told them they have to keep their head high walking out of here,” Pye said. “You lose, 3-2 in extra innings in the championship game, it’s a game that could go either way and it just didn’t go our way.”

FULL GAME STATS

“STATE TOURNAMENT CENTRAL”

Be sure to check out Aaron’s “Diamond Dish” final thoughts on the entire state tournament Friday afternoon.