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Onalaska's American Legion baseball team rode its pitching trio of Kyle Stewart, Andy Mills and Jordan Guth to its gaudy regular-season record of 22-4. So it only seemed fitting that that same trio helped send Onalaska to its first Class AA state tournament since 2004 in winning last weekend's regional at Holmen.

Stewart was the pitcher being ridden in the championship game, a 6-2 win over Reedsburg. The right-hander scattered seven hits in a complete game, allowing just two unearned runs with one out in the seventh.

Stewart also tallied 11 strikeouts, including punching out the side in the third. Stewart was pitching on two days rest after a complete-game, three-hit, 3-2 win over Reedsburg in the Legion's tournament opener.

Stewart also had 11 strikeouts in that game. He allowed just one earned run and two walks, though Onalaska needed to take advantage of two errors and a walk to set the stage for Tyler Adams, whose single to left drove in Taylor Steele and kept the Legion away from the arduous path through the loser's bracket. Brandon Rude also had a key single to left in the frame, putting Jordan Tredinnick at third with nobody out.

“My arm felt a lot better than I was expecting coming off two days rest,” Stewart said after the championship game. “I just did a lot of the normal things pitchers do after a start, icing and running. I was happy with my performance.”

Mills weaved his pitching magic in a 3-0, second-round win over Richland Center. The right-hander and Western Wisconsin Technical College sophomore-to-be allowed five hits and one walk against three strikeouts.

But Mills also played a huge part in the championship game. In addition to catching, his two-run double to the left-field corner in the fifth broke open a tight, 2-0 game and gave Onalaska much needed insurance after they were beaten 6-1 by Reedsburg earlier in the day.

“I had to pitch well in my start because our bats weren't very lively,” Mills said. “My teammates played a great defensive game (one error) behind me.

“The pitcher we saw in the championship game had been going with a lot of off-speed stuff early, so I thought he might try to sneak a fastball by me. He didn't want to get behind, and left one right down the middle. Having our fastest guy (Stewart) on first scoring helped.”

Mills and head coach Zeb Allert both were part of Onalaska's 2004 state champion. Both see similarities between that year's club and this year's team.

“We didn't hit, but if you win two of the three phases of the game consistently (pitching and defense), you've going to win more often than not,” Allert said. “We got lucky to beat Reedsburg Thursday, but you need to get lucky to win a regional.

“In ‘04 we had athletes one through 12, and this year we have athletes one through 15. In both years the bench guys have been pushing the starters. We've got an all-star pitcher (Luke Zurbriggen and Stewart).

“We don't have the team speed or experience we had in ‘04. But the athletes and the heart are the same.”

Mills said, “The young guys coming up on both teams have come up huge, but we've got a better bench this year. They're very similar teams. If we get pitching performances like we got this weekend and score early, we've got a shot to win another one.”

Stewart has been a four-year Legion player. His first year was 2005, when Onalaska had nearly everyone back from the state team, but went 1-2 in its regional.

“We all like to be around each other and we know we can beat every team we play,” Stewart said. “