Kewaunee oh-so-close, earns state silver

Kewaunee’s second drive to the state baseball tournament ended in a heartbreaking title game loss to the state’s top-ranked team, Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic Academy.

But you’d hardly know it after seeing the smiles all around and hearing the applause when the bus returned from the trip to Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute to a fire truck escort through downtown Kewaunee last Thursday afternoon, followed by a rally in the KHS gymnasium.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that it would be 2-2 in the 6th inning of the state championship game, I would take that all day long,” said Storm coach Dan Spranger. “These kids have worked so hard. They’re such good kids. They do what they’re told to do. I’m just so proud of what they accomplished. I told them, ‘You have no idea how important this is for yourselves, for this community and for our school.’”

As reported here last week, the Storm opened the Div. 3 tournament with a 5-3 win over Fennimore. Two days later, they came up just short, stranding runners in scoring position several innings and having some tough hops turn into errors in a 3-2 loss.

“That’s the thing about baseball, it’s tough sometimes,” Spranger said. “Those things happen. But for us to lose by one run in the state championship game, that’s pretty awesome. I don’t like losing, but if I had a choice, this is how I’d want it to be — a close game with a shot at the end.”

The title tilt was scoreless through three innings.

The Storm struck first in the top of the 4th. Freshman Diesel Bosdeck reached on a fielding error, stole second, advanced to third on Waylon Delain’s fly out to right and scored on a wild pitch.

The Lancers answered with one in the fourth on two hits, a triple and an RBI single. With one out, starting pitcher Brady Pribek then swapped spots with Jackson Walecka, who got the next two batters to pop up to second and fly out to right.

Toby Kunkel opened the 5th with a double down the left field line, advanced to third on Ethan Paplham’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Connor Kilgore’s fly ball to center field.
Kenosha St. Joseph again answered in the bottom of the inning. A walk, stolen base and fielding error tied the game at 2-2.

After a scoreless top half of the 6th, Waylon Delain came in to pitch for the Storm. He got the first two batters on a groundout and a fly ball, but three straight seeing-eye singles got through the infield on an assortment of hops for what would prove to be the difference in the game.

“Early on, they were hitting some nice balls, but right at us,” Paplham said. “They got ‘em to fall in the bottom of the sixth, and nothing we could do about that.”

Paplham, Kilgore, Alec Carlson and Kunkel had hits for Kewaunee, while Kilgore, Carlson and Brett Paulsen drew walks. Winning pitcher Zach Rizzo struck out six, and closer Dominic Santarelli struck out two of the three batters he faced in the 7th to earn the save. Pribek had Kewaunee’s only strikeout on the mound.

One of the team’s three seniors, Paplham had two of the team’s four hits in the first game.
“Those hits meant a lot to our team, and they helped us get through that one,” he said. “That felt really good.”

The others, Kunkel and Pribek, also had good memories.

“It felt amazing to just be on the field,” Pribek said. “It was great to see all the fans that came out to see us.”

Batting in the No. 9 position and in a late-season slump, Kunkel said hammering a double and scoring a run in the title game felt good.

“Definitely had a drought late in the season, so it was nice to do it in the state championship,” he said. “We came in here and gave Kenosha St. Joseph’s one of the toughest games they’ve had all year.”

Kunkel said the bus ride back to Kewaunee after the win Tuesday and back down Thursday were great memories.

“Everyone was just so excited,” he said. “And getting to ride in the fire truck on the way back, that was just awesome.”

Kewaunee loses three seniors, but will be able to draw from a junior varsity team that went 11-2 this year.

Pribek had some advice for the underclassmen.

“Work hard, and do whatever the coach tells you,” he said. “It’s going to pay off in the end.”

“Make the most of the opportunities,” Kunkel said. “Get in the cage more, get the grounders and stick with it.”

Paplham added, “We can be replaced. My advice is stay level-headed, pick everybody up and don’t throw helmets. Keep fighting hard and you’ll get places — maybe even back here.”

Kewaunee finished the season at 18-6.
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