The WIAA Baseball Tournament begins today for many local and area teams.
Crosstown rivals Manitowoc Lutheran and Roncalli meet this afternoon in a Division Three Regional Baseball game at Lancer Circle.
The visiting Jets are a nine-seed and finished the regular season tied with Two Rivers for sixth in the EWC (4-10) and 11-11 overall, while the Lancers an eight-seed, limp a bit into the postseason having dropped their last two regular season games and finished in a second place tie with Reedsville in the Big East North (7-3) and 12 and 8 overall.
Roncalli has been a streaky squad, having started the season with three straight wins before dropping four of five.
Their longest winning streak was four (May 9th through 15th), then they lost three straight games before concluding the regular season with a victory over Southern Door on May 23rd.
Seniors Hayden Dewane, Jake Hillmer, and Victor Anzia lead the Jets’ offence, but their Achilles heel has been walking to many batters. Roncalli hurlers allowed just 123 hits in 137 innings, but walked 99 in the same amount of work, which averages nearly one extra baserunner per inning.
They also do not fare well on the road, having just gone 4-6 away from home, and they also have just one victory against a team with a winning record, which ironically came against Manitowoc Lutheran back on May 9th by a score of 11-4.
Speaking of the Lancers, it took them a while to get going. After losing five of their first seven, they ran off 10 wins in 11 games, including 7 straight in Big East North play that set them up to win their first conference title in 51 years in a winner-take-all game at St. Mary Catholic (May 15th), which the hometown Zephyrs won by a score of 5-0.
Manitowoc Lutheran is a team built on playing with the lead.
They get on base with good plate discipline and make opposing pitchers work to get their pitch to hit, and then they can take advantage of their team speed.
They have stolen 83 bases with four players (Logan Haupt-19, Wesley Hecker-17, Josiah Martin, and Isiah Hockmuth have 13 each) in double figures.
Hockmuth is the staff ace with a 6- 0 record and a spectacular earned run average of point .85.
The Lancer senior has only allowed 8 runs, 5 earned, 23 hits in 41 and a third innings of work, but as a staff, much like Roncalli, walks have come back to bite them at times, having allowed 101 free passes or more than five a game.
They do like playing at home, having won 7 of 11 at Lancer Circle. The winner travels to top seed Cedar Grove-Belgium next Tuesday (June 2nd).
Game time is 4:30 this afternoon.
Other Division Three games include Valders travelling to Horicon, Mishicot heads up to Algoma, Living Word Lutheran of Jackson hosts Howards Grove, New Holstein hosts Mayville, Oostburg is in Fond Du Lac to play Winnebago Lutheran Academy, Sturgeon Bay is at Coleman, Sevastopol hosts Peshtigo, and St. Mary Catholic entertains Shiocton.
In Division Two, Two Rivers travels to Ripon, Denmark is home for Clintonville, Chilton plays host to Berlin, Sheboygan South takes a bus ride to Plymouth, Sheboygan Falls heads to Waupaca, Kohler/Sheboygan Christian is home for North Fond Du Lac/Oakfield, Freedom is at Notre Dame Academy of Green Bay, and Luxemburg-Casco has a home game against the Shawano Hawks.
Division Four matchups include Green Bay NEW Lutheran/Providence Academy hosting Sheboygan Lutheran, Hilbert hosts Almond-Bancroft, and Ozaukee travels to Plainfield to battle Tri-County.
Regular season baseball games have Reedsville home for Iola-Scandinavia, and Pulaski plays in Menasha against the Bluejays.
