The West De Pere baseball team was eliminated from the Fox River Classic Conference title chase by the time it hosted Bay Port last week.
The Phantoms still played spoiler against the No. 2-ranked Division 1 team in the state, beating the Pirates 2-1 to prevent them from becoming the third team in FRCC history to go undefeated in league play.
“Any win against a good quality opponent at this time of the year is what you are looking for,” longtime West De Pere coach Joe Rukamp said. “To have the opportunity to play against Bay Port and [Pirates coach] Harvey [Knutson] and his program, I have a lot of respect for what they do over there.
“Bay Port is a pretty big rival, whether it’s in football or basketball or baseball. So, our guys were locked in and focused. We played a really good game earlier in the year over there. We lost 3-1, but we had a 1-0 lead on them early. Our guys believe they can compete with them.”
West De Pere (16-10) also showed it can compete in the FRCC after moving from the Bay Conference before the season.
It tied Pulaski for runner-up to Bay Port in the 10-team league and enters the D1 tournament on a season-high six-game winning streak after a 12-0 victory at Manitowoc on May 26.
Almost everything has clicked the last few weeks for the Phantoms, who did not win two straight games this season until sweeping Green Bay Southwest in a doubleheader May 9.
It started a stretch of eight victories in nine games, with the only loss coming against Seymour.
They have won several close games during that span, including a run of five straight one-run wins over Preble, Sheboygan North, Menasha, De Pere and Bay Port.
Perhaps it was a recent team meeting with the seniors that delivered the spark.
Rukamp started a tradition a few years ago in which coaches meet with the seniors once a week starting in the winter. The discussions revolve around the culture of the program and what they hope to get out of their final year.
After a difficult stretch during which the Phantoms found ways to lose games instead of pulling them out, it was time for another talk.
There was no sugarcoating it. West De Pere wasn’t meeting its expectations.
Were players going to respond as a group or instead worry about themselves and spiral into different directions?
They picked sticking together.
“Ethan Collar, he’s been our senior leader,” Rukamp said about his standout infielder. “He’s got the nickname ‘Cap’ now. They call him ‘The Captain.’ The guys respect him, man. He plays hard and he does things the right way. He’s the first one to show up at the field. He’s the guy. He’s just taken off as a leader since the season has gone on.”
His teammates followed.
There is no better example than the 11-10 win over the Golden Raiders on May 15.
The Phantoms were down 4-1 after two innings. After they scored four runs to take back the lead in the fourth inning, they allowed four runs in the fifth and another two in the sixth to trail 10-5 entering the top of the seventh.
West De Pere responded by scoring six runs to pull off a stunner.
West De Pere’s pitching leads to wins
It always helps to have an ace, which is what senior left-hander Logan Wierzba has been for West De Pere.
The Iowa Western Community College commit was a first-team all-conference selection in the Bay as a junior and has picked up where he left off now that he’s in the FRCC.
Wierzba entered the final game of the regular season with a 5-2 record and a 1.38 ERA, striking out 65 batters in 40⅔ innings. He held opponents to a .164 batting average and a .206 on-base percentage.
It wasn’t by design, but instead how the schedule played out, that Wierzba was on the mound for several of West De Pere’s games against the better teams in the FRCC.
Wierzba held Preble to two unearned runs in almost 10 innings over two starts, although West De Pere lost one of the games 1-0.
He helped the Phantoms beat defending league champion De Pere in both meetings, making two spectacular starts.
Wierzba pitched all seven innings in the first showdown, giving up one hit and striking out 17 in a 2-0 win April 21.
He followed with another complete game in the rematch, allowing one run on two hits and striking out nine in a 2-1 victory May 19.
Even better?
Fellow senior Nolan Sell has started to round into form after dealing with some shoulder issues in the winter.
Rukamp said before the season that if Wierzba is the Phantoms’ 1A starter, then Sell is 1B.
That was never more evident than in the win against Bay Port.
The right-hander and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point commit held the Pirates to just four hits and one run in seven innings, striking out five on 95 pitches.
It was the first time this season a team from the state held a potent Bay Port offense – it entered the week averaging an FRCC-high 8.2 runs per game – to one or zero runs.
That kind of pitching talent runs in the family.
Sell’s father, Adam, was a standout at Green Bay West in the early 1990s. He set the single-season strikeout record in the old Fox River Valley Conference in 1992 before Green Bay East’s John Verheyen broke it six years later.
“He got off to a slow start this year, he wasn’t throwing a lot early, just kind of helping his shoulder get back,” Rukamp said of Sell. “That was his best start of the year, and kind of what we hoped and what he expected out of himself. To have that moment now at the end of the year when you need it going into the playoffs was huge for him and our whole team.”
West De Pere part of difficult sectional
Speaking of the tournament, the Phantoms are seeking their first trip to sectionals since reaching D2 state in 2019.
Rukamp agrees with Knutson that the sectional West De Pere and Bay Port are competing in is the most difficult in the state.
But there is a path for the Phantoms to win a regional championship.
They received a No. 5 seed and will host No. 12 Southwest in a regional opener.
West De Pere would likely not need Wierzba to beat the Trojans, who they defeated by a combined 39-1 in two games this season.
That would allow Wierzba to start a regional final two days later against No. 4 Hortonville, provided the Polar Bears don’t get shocked by No. 13 Green Bay East/West to start tournament play.
Two wins by West De Pere could set up another showdown against No. 1 Bay Port in a sectional semifinal.
“We know that every game is going to be a grind,” Rukamp said. “We’ve played a lot of one-run games here. I keep saying to the guys after the Bay Port game, after the De Pere game, two 2-1 games, those are the kind of games it’s going to be in the playoffs.
“Everybody in the sectional has two or three pitchers that can dominate a game. We are going to have to play good defense, and we are going to have to find ways at the plate. Find ways to score runs. I fully expect us to be ready to play and play our best.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: West De Pere baseball enters WIAA Division 1 tournament on hot streak
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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