Baseball team sees three earn nods for season on diamond
By Adam Knoll
It was not an easy season for the Whitewater High School softball team that went 6-16 overall, with a 4-12 mark in conference. It was an almost constant battle to score runs on offense, while on defense, poorly timed errors often doomed the squad.
Through it all though, there was one constant, Michaela Schumacher, the starting pitcher for the Whippets whose arm nearly fell off during the season.
Schumacher pitched 113.6 innings of a possible 133.6 the team played. Eight-five percent of all the pitches thrown came from Schumacher, an unheard of number. While she gave up 145 runs total, only 93 of them were earned.
The Whippets defense had 73 errors this season, or 3.3 per game on average. While that might be enough for some pitchers to give up that wasn’t an option for Schumacher who fought on and earned six wins on the season. Her 5.73 ERA was not pristine but her efforts earned her a much-deserved spot on the 1st Team All-Conference list.
“Michaela did a great job pitching for us this year,” Dan Dowden said. “Her natural position is catcher but pitched to help the team do its best. She was named the MVP by a team vote as well as by the coaches. Michaela is a natural athlete that loves to compete, hates to lose and gives her heart to the game.”
For the offense, Whitewater scored 57 runs (2.5 a game) on a .223 batting average. Taking walks became a big part of the Whippet attack, upping the team’s on-base percentage nearly a full 100 points, to .318. Factoring in hit batsmen, the Whippets had more base runners due to free passes, than they did by putting the bat on the ball.
And yet the perseverance of the team can’t be questioned. They fought hard, game in and game out, and never quit. There were no egregiously long losing streaks, the longest being only five games. The Whippets did have a winning streak of two games against Jefferson in a doubleheader in the middle of the season and they plated 23 runners against Faith Christian on May 16.
But with the good came the challenges including the team suffering six shutouts including the WIAA regional game against East Troy.
“We will miss Alex Cady, the lone senior on the team this year. Alex was a leader on and off the field,” Dowden said, turning the focus to next season. “(We have) four juniors coming back next year, Lauren Lohff, Emily Stoll, Emilie Kachel and Hannah Tuinstra. Each will be relied on to lead the team in their own way. The sophomores and freshmen can learn a lot from these girls.”
Three get all conference nods from baseball
The Whitewater High School baseball team finished the season 4-8 in conference in games that were reported. The team was not too far from the top half of the conference with its longest losing streak this season at four games.
Earning individual awards for the Whippets were: catcher Jacob Maas as a second team All-Conference member and teammates Julian Sonn and Tyler Hill with honorable mentions.
Maas has moved on from the program but Sonn and Hill will be back to anchor the squad next season.
