By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Badger High School baseball team was scheduled to begin its season this week pending the whims of Mother Nature. Saturday’s opener at East Troy was postponed because of a wintery day and the weather report heading into this week did not look promising for Tuesday’s home opener against Delavan-Darien either.
Badger finished last season 10-13 overall but 8-6 in the Southern Lakes Conference. Coach Aaron Zweifel said that was partly because of one of the toughest non-conference schedules around.
“Those games make you battle-tested for conference play,” he said.
Zweifel said last year’s team had good solid pitching and defense all year. It also had a lot of returning players with varsity experience. The reverse could be true this year as seven senior starters have graduated from last year’s team. Zweifel said none of them were all-conference players, but most of them were two-year starters who provided quality experience.
“This year’s team is extremely young,” Zweifel said.
Zweifel said the team has seven seniors but only four of them were on the team last year, with only one of them having seen significant playing time as a junior.
“Last year we were senior-dominated and this year it is wide open everywhere,” he said.
Zweifel does have a core of talented players to lean on. Senior Isaac Ziervogel, a second-team all-SLC infielder last year, returns and will pitch and see time at shortstop and in the outfield.
Junior Tyler Love is coming off of a football injury but led the team in hitting as a sophomore. Zweifel expects Love to be the best bat in his lineup and play centerfield and first base.
Junior Mason DuMez was brought up to the varsity team during the season last year and earned some quality varsity experience. He will pitch and play in the outfield and be expected to drive in runs.
Zweifel said he likes his team’s overall positive attitude and willingness to learn and be coached.
“We will be young, but the guys will be hungry and we’ll improve throughout the year with experience,” Zweifel predicted.
Focusing on doing the little things defensively will be one of the keys to that improvement.
“We talk about the importance of making the routine plays all the time,” Zweifel said. “The teams that make the routine plays will be there competing at the end of every game.”
Zweifel said the team must also work on its mental approach to hitting.
“Pitchers at the varsity level have a plan to attack hitters, and, if you don’t have a plan as a hitter, you’re going to struggle,” he said. “You need to know the situation, what pitches to look for in certain counts and how to hit the ball to all fields.”
Zweifel said Ziervogel will be his No. 1 starting pitcher. He will start the season with sophomore Angelo Camalieri as the No. 2 with DuMez, junior Austin Gallo and sophomores Brady Fields and Tanner Fields also getting innings.
Defensively, Zweifel said, he will see what he has once the games begin. With only one returning varsity infielder and two returning outfielders, it is difficult to predict just based on practice.
“The guys that are stepping in have played a lot of baseball and have all the tools to get the job done,” Zweifel said. “It’s just a matter of finding our best mix.”
Offensively, Zweifel said his young team has a way to go to understand what it takes to be successful varsity hitters, but he said he has seen immense improvement in two weeks of practice already.
“We don’t have guys who will hit the long ball, so we’ll need to move the runners and put the ball in play to put pressure on the defense,” Zweifel said. “We have pretty good team speed and an athletic team with all of our multiple-sport athletes.”
Zweifel said Waterford is loaded this year and is ranked No. 4 in Division 1 to start the season. Beyond the Wolverines, he said, Burlington, Wilmot, Westosha Central and Union Grove will compete for the top half of the conference.
“We’ll be underdogs for sure, which is fine with us,” he said. “We’ll work hard and compete every game while improving throughout the year. If we play solid defense and throw strikes, we’ll surprise some people.”
As usual, Badger will play a challenging non-conference schedule as well. The Badgers will play defending Division 1 state champion Janesville Craig, this year’s pre-season No. 3 team, and Kenosha Bradford and Kenosha Indian Trail, both pre-season top-20 picks in Division 1. The Badgers will also play Jefferson, Clinton and Beloit Turner, all of whom are pre-season top-20 teams in Division 2.
In addition to Tuesday’s scheduled game at home against Delavan-Darien, the Badgers are scheduled to play at Delavan-Darien on Thursday and host Jefferson on Friday. The Badgers will host Elkhorn on April 12 and travel to Elkhorn on April 14.
