Mid-season WarCat Baseball Summary
The Birchwood/Winter WarCats baseball team will eclipse the halfway mark in their season once they get past Lake Holcombe/Cornell.
Currently, the 'Cats sit at 3-5 with 2 close ones against Bruce and Flambeau that easily could have gone their way. Coach Delabar states, "We started out slow in the beginning of the season but have quickly gained momentum as we learn who we are as a ball club. We have figured out that pitching is a major key for us. When our 2nd and 3rd pitchers (Carter and Cole Petit) are lively, the rest of the game falls into place."
The WarCats have had no issue scoring runs in the last few games, even getting out to a hot start which is an uncommon trait for the team to have considering the "late run" trend of teams in the past. Gunnar Greuel continues dominating on the mound, but is not racking up the wins that he expects yet. He has knocked down 44 batters on strikes through just shy of 24 innings this year for an average of almost 2 per inning. Gunnar Greuel and Carter Petit lead the way at the dish, hitting .518 and .500 respectively.
With a young infield consisting of Cole Fee (3B), Logan Hautamaki (SS), and Hunter Sirinek (2B), the WarCats have committed our fair share of errors. However, these freshmen take their mistakes in stride and learn from them. They have yet to hang their heads and sulk. They just move onto the next play as they are coached to do. They lean on their veteran 1st baseman, Landon Heizler, to pick balls out of the dirt for them from time to time, but that is one of his favorite hobbies so no harm done.
Delabar comments, "Our current record is not what we would like to see it at, but we continue to grow and learn with a team full of 9 freshmen. Cayden Manke continues to improve in the outfield and at the plate on a daily basis and is becoming an integral part of what we do. Logan Hautamaki's excellent at-bats in the leadoff position are not shown in the stat book, but they set the tone for the rest of the lineup on a consistent basis."
Jayden Campbell and Carter Petit have both had successful "back on the horse" moments after rough patches in some games. The WarCat bench players are in the game, cheering, yelling about food, eating seeds, and supporting their guys even though their innings have been limited. Without these experiences and failures, there is no growth. Not that the WarCats want to fail, by any means, but how they handle those failures is what is going to make them a dangerous draw in the WIAA tournament at the end of the season.
The WarCats team consists of 10 players from Winter with 4 freshmen and a number of returning starters and 7 players from Birchwood - 5 of which are freshmen. Taking into consideration the 10 total players they had last season (all from Winter), the jump to 17 total is a welcomed one. The Co-op still presents its own challenges in terms of transportation and practices, but they make due and put the best product on the field that we are able to.
Coach Caleb Schmidt (Winter) takes control of sending runners around the bases as first base coach and Coach Jason Ufferman (Birchwood) helps us pick up the slack anywhere we need. He is a valuable asset to our team.
Please come support our boys any time you are able to in the next month or so!
#WarCatsBaseball
