This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Entering the month of May, the Marshfield baseball team was just 4-5 overall, had lost all four of its Wisconsin Valley Conference games and was left wondering where it offense had gone.
During a stretch of three games ending with a loss in the first game of a doubleheader with Middeton on May 3, the Tigers scored just two runs.
The team’s fortunes changed in the second game of the twinbill. A bases-loaded walk-off single by Sam Klein in the bottom of the seventh inning gave Marshfield a 5-4 victory. Even more importantly, it gave the Tigers confidence.
Since, Marshfield has gone 10-1, including eight wins in a row heading into Thursday’s doubleheader against Wausau East.
“It seems like the kids are just coming together,” Marshfield coach Mark Zee said. “They don’t care about who gets the credit, who has the big hit, they have just decided to put it all together to be successful as a team.”
Zee added that the Tigers are having a lot of fun playing a game they love, and why wouldn’t they be after what they have put together over the last three weeks.
Another walk-off win, on a hit by Matt Meyer in the second game of a doubleheader against New Richmond on May 10 started the win streak.
In the next game, Marshfield scored nine times in the top of the seventh inning to beat Merrill 12-8 and followed that up with a 10-0 whitewashing of the Bluejays at home two days later.
On May 16, the Tigers opened their home tournament with another walk-off win, this time beating Menomonie 9-8 on an RBI sacrifice fly by Cameron Swanson in the ninth inning.
The Tigers have scored 61 runs during their eight-game winning streak, which includes six in a row in the Valley, moving them from last place into second.
“I think it started playing a lot of (nonconference) games on those weekends,” Zee said. “Usually what happens is you get to see some less-experienced pitching in those games. We got some good pitching from our group and took advantage of that to win some games. It was good to get our confidence going and it paid off in our hitting and our pitching.”
Sophomore Jake Brueggen was one of those pitchers who got a chance to throw in a nonconference game early in the season out of necessity. He defeated Eau Claire North 6-2 back on the opening weekend of the season and after giving up just one run in six innings against Tomah a couple of weeks later, found himself in the rotation for good. He is 5-1 with a 2.51 earned-run average.
Senior Jack Donahue is the team’s other main starter and after some early-season struggles he has turned in 12 straight scoreless innings in his last two starts.
“We’ve said that decent pitching and good defense keeps you close, and gives you a chance if you can hit,” Zee said. “The top six in the batting order are all seniors, except Trevor Schwecke, but he is a two-year starter. We knew the guys behind them were good hitters too, and now everybody is hitting, everybody is having fun.”
Marshfield closes its regular-season schedule at Mosinee on Friday and is looking at a top-four seed for its sectional. The seedings for the upcoming WIAA playoffs were to be announced on Thursday. The Tigers will likely host a regional semifinal on June 3. See hubcitytimes.com for details on the WIAA baseball playoffs and for results of Marshfield’s final games of the season.