GRAND CHUTE – The Kewaunee baseball team is one win away from a WIAA state championship.
Playing the first game in program history on the big stage, Kewaunee beat Fennimore 5-3 in a Division 3 state semifinal at Fox Cities Stadium on June 17.
The Storm (18-5) will play Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic (22-7) in the title game at 12 p.m. June 19.
“It’s our first trip, and it’s new to all of us,” Kewaunee coach Dan Spranger said. “We just said, look, we are just going to treat it like we have the rest of the season. We came in the same school bus we were rolling up in, we came with the same bus driver. We didn’t change a thing.”
Which included handing the ball to junior ace Brett Paulsen.
Spranger gave the left-hander a big hug after the victory over the Golden Eagles, and for good reason after he helped limit a Fennimore offense that had scored five or more runs 16 times this season.
Spranger never pretended to contemplate which of his talented pitchers would start the semifinal.
He already declared last week it would be Paulsen, the Packerland Conference player of the year who relishes big moments and often thrives in them.
Of the first six outs recorded by Paulsen against Fennimore, five were strikeouts. He kept his team in the game early by working out of a few minor jams, with the Golden Eagles unable to get a key two-out hit with runners on first and second in the bottom of the first inning and again with runners on the corners in the third.
Paulsen struck out eight and allowed two earned runs in five innings on 90 pitches.
Fellow junior Waylon Delain came out of the bullpen and never gave Fennimore much of a chance, earning the save with two scoreless innings while allowing no hits, no walks and striking out two.
“It feels amazing, it’s everything we wanted from the start of the year,” Paulsen said. “To be able to do this and get another opportunity and be able to say that we are still practicing, we still have got something to win, that’s amazing.”
Kewaunee capitalizes on Fennimore mistakes
If it appeared like the Storm was comfortable on a spacious field and despite any nerves of being at state, it’s probably because the team has played a game during the regular season at Fox Cities Stadium each of the last four years.
Yes, that was by design. It always was good to be prepared just in case the team found itself playing for a state title someday.
Kewaunee wasn’t perfect. It made three errors, and for a team that doesn’t hit homers and prides itself on fundamentals, it didn’t have a banner day with its bunting.
But it still was far better than the Golden Eagles, whose mistakes were magnified because of how much damage they caused.
Fennimore starter Tyson Starkey allowed all five runs Kewaunee scored, but only one was earned.
The Storm broke a scoreless tie on a two-run triple to right center by cleanup hitter Brady Pribek with one out in the fourth inning. It scored both Ethan Paplham, who started the frame with a single, and Paulsen, who reached on a fielding error by the second baseman.
That was nothing compared to the fifth, when Kewaunee all but broke open the game.
After Micah Vanness and Paplham reached on walks with one out, Connor Kilgore hit a ball to right field that appeared like it should have been caught but was misjudged by the outfielder.
Once the ball hit the ground and the first mistake was compounded by a throwing error, it was off to the races.
Vanness and Paplham both scored before Kilgore motored all the way around the bases. It didn’t go into the books as his first home run of the year, but it counted all the same.
Giving a 5-1 lead to Paulsen was good enough. He and Delain did the rest.
Kewaunee only had four hits and a .154 team batting average, but nobody seemed to mind.
“At this point it doesn’t matter if it’s a hit, if it’s an error, whatever it is, you have got to take advantage of those situations,” Spranger said. “It was a tough play for that kid to make, and it got behind him. For us to clear the bases like that and give us a little bit of cushion, which is what we really needed.”
Storm prepares for title game
Kewaunee was unranked in the state rankings to end the season. It already has knocked out No. 7 Fennimore, but an even bigger task awaits against top-ranked St. Joseph.
While the Storm is new to all this, the Lancers have been one of the best programs in state history.
The have won four state championships, only behind the nine from Sun Prairie, the seven from Appleton West and the five by both Burlington Catholic Central and Nekoosa.
St. Joseph finished runner-up in D3 last season and has been to state four of the last five years. It won its most recent championship in 2021 when it beat Coleman in the title game.
“We stay focused on the goal,” Paulsen said. “We are a good group of guys that share in that goal. We are going to do just fine.”
Kewaunee wasn’t planning to take a break during the off day before the title game.
“There are things we need to clean up a little bit,” Spranger said. “We tried to put a couple bunts down and we didn’t do a good job with that. We talked about that after the game. There are these little things that will determine whether you win the championship or not, and if we don’t do things, we will not win.
“We are not going to go out there and slug the ball all around the park. We are going to play good defense, have good pitching and then try to manufacture some runs. … We are going to work on those things (during the off day). We are going to take it easy, rest our arms a little bit, but we are going to be out there on the field.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kewaunee baseball team will play for Division 3 state championship after 5-3 win over Fennimore
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
