By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
The Whitewater High School baseball team recently played three games in two days at Woodside Sports Complex in central Wisconsin, which led to the Whippets outscoring their opponents 44-3.
The games played, which were at Woodside Sports Complex, started with a matchup against Saint Croix Central. Saint Croix Central started the game with a 2-0 after the first inning and led 2-1 after two innings.
From the third inning on, however, Whitewater outscored its opponent 14-1 to eventually win, 15-3.
“I think it was just getting through the lineup,” Whippet head coach Jim Pease said. “We hadn’t played in a while and the kids just had to get a little timing back.”
In the third game, against Roncalli, Dylan Pease went 3-for-3 with four RBIs while Curtis tallied four as well, while going 2-for-3 from the plate.
“They all threw very well,” Jim Pease said. “Even the guys in relief. Everybody threw strikes, we played good defense behind them and we knew pitching would be a strength of ours this year. I think we threw a total of eight pitchers out there and everybody threw really well.”
Against Saint Croix Central, Jason Curtis pitched five innings and allowed three hits, while Jacob Lee came in for relief and pitched a hitless inning. Against Greenwood, James Dedrick pitched three innings and allowed just one hit. Lee came in for an inning once again, as did Alex Fero, and both guys didn’t allow a hit.
Against Roncalli, Tyler Niemuth pitched three innings and allowed two innings. The bullpen though, again, didn’t allow a single hit in two innings. Dylan Pease and Hunter Martin each pitched one inning in that victory.
Offensively, the team scored 44 runs in three games and 48 over the first four games of the season. Jim Pease said the lineup is exceeding expectations so far with how the team has one freshman starter and three to four sophomore starters per game.
“I just wasn’t sure and they’re doing more than I thought with the bats this early,” Jim Pease said. “But, to be honest, everybody is. They’re putting good approaches together and getting good at bats and that’s what we’re asking of them.”
Fero went 4-for-4 against Saint Croix Central, while Curtis went 2-for-2 and added four RBIs. Against Greenwood, three different players had multi-hit games and of the 10 RBIs the team totaled, only Curtis had more than one, with his two.
After the win against Saint Croix Central, Whitewater defeated Greenwood on April 8, 10-0 and Roncalli on April 8, 19-0. Both the pitching and the offense were clicking throughout the weekend, and as Pease said, it wasn’t just the starting pitching that dominated.
Baseball team comes up short vs. Edgerton
After the team’s 4-0 start to the season, Whitewater had another game against Edgerton on the road on April 11.
The game proved to be a first for multiple aspects for the Whippets, as the team lost, 4-1. The four runs were the most the team has allowed to this early point in the season, and it was the first time the Whippets hadn’t scored at least four runs offensively.
Edgerton got the first run of the game in the second inning and then the game went scoreless up until the sixth inning. Whitewater would respond with a run in the sixth, but in the bottom-half of the inning, Edgerton added three more to result in the eventual three-run defeat.
Edgerton totaled seven hits compared to Whitewater’s five and five different players each recorded one hit apiece. Curtis started the game on the mound, while Lee would finish.
Softball team falls to Edgerton
The Whippet softball team had a much less hectic week of play compared to the baseball team, as the girls had its game against Parkview rescheduled to April 24 and its game against Palmyra-Eagle postponed.
The lone game of the week came against Edgerton on April 11. No stats were available at the time of publication regarding the game, but Edgerton defeated Whitewater, 18-4.
The Whippets have a game scheduled for April 18 at Big Foot before playing at home against Clinton on April 20.
