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Indians whip Pirates, move on to sectional action Friday
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By Judy Harlow
KEWASKUM- While it may not have been designated as such on the schedule, Tuesday, July 16, was definitely Senior Night for the Kewaskum High School baseball team. The team got its “second season” underway in grand style with an 8-3 victory over Port Washington.
“The seniors in the number three, four and five spots came through. They had some big hits,” coach Dave Donath said afterward, quick to add, “We’ll need lot more of them to make the next step.”
As the No. 3 hitter, Dan Shea went 2x3 with a single and double, while cleanup man Matt Parrent contributed two base hits, including an RBI double in the first inning, which definitely boosted the Indians’ confidence.
The biggest hit of the night, however, was the bases-loaded triple by Logan Staege in the bottom of the fifth. With Casey Scheel, Shea and Parrent aboard, Staege smashed a 1-1 pitch deep into right-cent field, giving the Indians a 6-2 advantage.
When Donath saw the ball flying between the two Pirate outfielders, he admitted he felt a whole lot more relaxed. “Those were big runs ... gave (pitcher) John (Holt) a little cushion,” he said.
Shea, Parrent and Staege combined for five of the team’s nine hits, and the fourth senior on the team, leadoff man Casey Sheel, did hit part, hitting a single, and a double in the bottom of the sixth that was responsible for the team’s eighth and ninth runs of the contest.
Parrent, the center fielder, is confident about the Indians’ chances in the sectional. “That’s the goal (getting to state),” he said.
Are the seniors focused? “Oh yeah, this is our last year. We have to be.”
Second baseman Ben Butler also had a good night at the plate, hitting a pair of singles and scoring twice.
“I’m happy. A win is a win,” Donath said, noting there were a few things in the game he was not pleased with, but, “We did a lot of good things tonight.”
One of the very good things was the pitching effort of junior right-hander John Holt, who gave up just four hits and struck out eight.
Holt did have some control problems, especially in the fifth inning, and Donath said at that point he considered making a pitching change.
“In the fifth inning, I was ready to remove him,” Donath said, reporting Holt told him he was correcting the problem, so he decided to let him continue.
“He hit a guy (Jason Race) in the sixth, but he did bear down and got the final two outs,” Donath said.
While Port was unable to score any runs in the first four innings, Holt had a mighty high pitch count in three of those frames, including 16 in the first, 28 in the second toward a total of 57.
For the game, he wound up with 137 pitches, a surprisingly high number according to Donath, who said, “I didn’t know that,” and adding, “He doesn’t make it easy on himself. He’s got to get ahead of the hitters,” which he usually does.
The Pirates got their first two runs in the fifth when Dan Dickmann hit a one-out single, and Holt walked three straight, including Ken Dornberg, Mike Burmesch and Matt Burmesch to force in a run.
Catcher Mike Sherrick, who came on to pitch the fifth and sixth innings, came through with a single that scored run No. 2.
In the top of the seventh, Dornberg walked, the Burmesches struck out, Sherrick got his second base hit of the game, and when left fielder Jordan Petrin let the ball get by him, the Pirates had their third run.
Sherrick went to second on the error and to third on a passed ball, but Holt got PW cleanup hitter Jon DeBoer on strikes to end the game.
With the win, Holt’s record improves to 8-5, and the Indians will take a mark of 21-8 into Friday’s sectional competition, which will be held at Random Lake.
DeBoer took the loss, and he finished the year with a mark of 3-4. Port finished the 2007 campaign with a record of 10-22.
Kewaskum will face West Bend East on Friday at 2 p.m. at Random Lake. East defeated Slinger, 5-1 in a game played at Regner Park while the Indians defeated the Pirates.
West Bend West, a 13-0 winner over Oostburg, is in the other semifinal game. The once-beaten Spartans play at 11 a.m. on Friday at Random Lake
The winners of those games square off at 5 p.m. for the right to go to the WIAA State Summer Baseball Tournament. Stop back at our website for the outcome of that game.
Concerning who he will pitch Friday, Donath said, “I don’t know what we’re going to do yet. You can’t always save your ace for the second game because there may not be on.”
Donath said he wasn’t sure who would win the game between East and Slinger. “You never know which team is going to show up,” he said about the Suns. “I would anticipate it would be East, but you never know.”
Donath expects West will reach the finals, and he and the rest of the Indians would like another crack at the Spartans who beat them 17-2 several weeks ago.
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