Despite losing eight starters from last year, the Stevens
Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) baseball team won its fifth consecutive
Wisconsin Valley Conference (WVC) Title this season.

The seventh-ranked Panthers (18-3) clinched the Conference
Title outright with an 8-2 win over Merrill at Bukolt Park Thursday, May 19,
and remained unbeaten in conference (11-0) with a 12-11 win at home over D.C.
Everest in 10 innings Tuesday, May 24.

SPASH was set to close out the conference season at D.C.
Everest at 5 p.m. Thursday,
May 26, before the postseason starts next week when the third-seeded Panthers
host a Regional Final at Bukolt
Park against either
sixth-seeded River
Falls or 11th-seeded Superior at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 2.

“That’s a credit to baseball in Stevens Point,” said SPASH baseball head
coach Kraig Terpstra of the Conference Titles. “We just have a lot of depth. I give
returning guys opportunities, and they make the most of it.

“I knew we’d have a chance to be good, and the guys are just
playing really well,” he said. “I can’t say exceeding my expectations, because
I have a high expectations, but they’re definitely meeting my expectations of,
‘if you play the game the right way, good things will happen.’”

SPASH lost WVC Player of the Year and First Team All-WVC
pitcher and first baseman Noel Winch, Unanimous First Team All-WVC pitcher Alex
Lee, First Team All-WVC catcher D.J. Drohner, Second Team All-WVC left fielder
Andrew Ruzek, Honorable Mention All-WVC third baseman Jacob Ligenza and
Honorable Mention All-WVC outfielder TJ Schrank from last year’s team that
finished 19-9 after it lost to Chippewa Falls 6-3 in the Sectional Semifinals.

The Panthers brought back Unanimous First Team All-WVC senior
shortstop Trev Anderson, who led the conference in hitting last season with a
.545 batting average and was the team’s top returning pitcher, but earlier this
month he was lost for the rest of the season in order to clean up an injury
suffered during basketball season.

“Trev was playing very well and pitching very well before
his injury,” said Terpstra. “Since he’s been hurt we’re (7-1), so I’m proud of
the guys for reacting positively.

“You have the conference’s leading hitter returning, you
lose him, you could panic,” he said. “I thought our guys really did a nice job
overcoming that so far.”

Leading the Panthers at the top of the order is their other
returning starter from last year in Second Team All-WVC senior Ted Kearney, who
moved from second base to shortstop this season, followed by junior second
baseman Joe Strigel and junior center fielder Gus Turner-Zick.

“Ted’s got a lot of speed at the top of the lineup and has
been tremendous at short, just highlight plays, and consistent,” said Terpstra.
“I would say defense is probably our best quality as a team, and he’s a big
part of it.

“Joe’s been an awesome player for us, playing in the
infield, and just tremendous pitching for us,” he said. “Gus is a great
baseball player, a great athlete, mentally and physically. Physically he’s got
speed, he’s got a strong arm, good bat speed, but the biggest thing is, he’s
just so confident, he’s so calm and he comes through in the clutch.”

Senior right fielder Nick Schroeder and senior first baseman
Matt McHugh, who will play baseball at NJCAA Division II Southwestern Community
College (Iowa)
next season, both earned starting spots this year, while junior designated
hitter/left fielder Brandon Patoka has broken into the lineup during the
season.

“Nick has really been a senior leader for us, both on the
field and off the field,” said Terpstra. “He’s gotten big hits time and time
again, he’s a valuable pitcher for us off the bench, and he’s been assigned to
the Senior All-Star Game this summer.

“Matt’s a great hitter, earlier in the year he struggled a
little bit, but he’s close to .400 right now and he’s played tremendous defense
at first base,” he said. “And Brandon
is really hitting the ball and executing good at bats.”

Also moving into starting roles this season are a trio of
seniors in third baseman Evan Mallek, catcher Mack Journell and left fielder
Jamison Kryshak.

“Evan’s been solid for us at third, he’s a player I trust on
the field, he has great potential at the plate and has had some big hits for
us,” said Terpstra. “Mack is probably a guy who has improved the most during
the season. A lot of our basketball players started slow, but he’s really
picked it up defensively and offensively, and as he’s played better, it’s
really sparked our team.

“And then Jay is a great competitor and athlete, he’s done a
really nice job for us in left field, and he’s a tough out and a guy who can
run the bases,” he said.

Also in the mix for playing time are senior infielder Ryan
Glodowski, senior first baseman/outfielder Gavin Erbes, junior infielder
Cameron Lee, senior infielder Hunter Lodzinski, junior infielder Tyler
Frajford, junior catcher/utility player Aaron Baker, junior infielder Jacob
Piotrowski, junior catcher Josh Morton, senior first baseman/outfielder Kevin
Jastromski and junior outfielder Grant Roth.

On the mound, Strigel has led the pitching staff that also
consists of Cameron Lee, Schroeder, Jastromski, Mallek, Glodowski, Frajford and
freshman Brady Franz.

“Depth has been the key to our success,” said Terpstra.
“Joe’s got an opportunity and he’s kind of that ace, especially with Trev out.

“Cam Lee’s had some good outings, and Kevin Jastromski, the
first 10, 12 games he had one inning and 1/3, and now he’s been the guy we go
to in pinches,” he said. “And I really give him credit for staying positive and
staying with it.

“I really like our depth,” he said. “And to win a Sectional,
we’re going to need that depth.”

SPASH won 11 of its first 12 games to start the season, as
it split a doubleheader with ninth-ranked Green Bay Preble April 16, and then
split a doubleheader with 17th-ranked La Crosse Central May 6 to move to 12-2.

With Anderson out of the lineup, the Panthers won four of
their next five games, as they split a doubleheader with Chippewa Falls May 14,
and won at Merrill 10-0 Tuesday, May 17, to improve to 16-3 overall and clinch
at least a share of the WVC Title at 9-0 in the conference.

SPASH had a chance to win it outright at Bukolt Park
Thursday night against Merrill, which scored a run in the top of the second
inning and carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning.

There, the Panthers scored four runs to take a 4-1 lead,
while Turner-Zick led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to start
a four-run rally that gave the team an 8-1 lead.

Merrill added a run in the top of the seventh to close out
the scoring on SPASH’s 8-2 win that clinched its fifth WVC Title in a row and
10th in the last 12 years under Terpstra.

“A lot of really good players, and what’s really great about
it is, not a lot of them are repeats,” said Terpstra. “It’s almost a new team
every year, seven, eight starters every year, and I’m just happy for the guys,
that they’re able to sustain success.

“I’m proud that they believe in us coaches and play with
confidence and play with a lot of sacrifice,” he said. “It’s an honor to coach
at a school like SPASH and a great program like SPASH baseball, and to continue
the tradition of success is just very rewarding.”

The Panthers followed with a 5-4 nonconference win at
Waupaca Monday, May 23, and then used a walk-off double to the right-field
corner from McHugh to score Schroeder from first base in the bottom of the 10th
inning to beat D.C. Everest 12-11 Tuesday, May 24, and improve to 11-0 in the
conference.

“Our guys just kept fighting back,” said Terpstra. “They
really deserved this win; they could have folded a couple of times.”

SPASH was set to close the WVC season at D.C. Everest
Thursday and then will play a doubleheader at Neenah in the regular-season finale Saturday,
May 28, with the postseason set to begin next week.

The Panthers received the third seed in their Sectional and
will host either sixth-seeded and reigning WIAA Division 1 State Semifinalist
River Falls or 11th-seeded Superior
in the Regional Finals June 2.

The Sectional Semifinals and Sectional Final will be held at
Marshfield
Tuesday, June 7, as SPASH is in a bracket that also includes top-seeded and fifth-ranked
Eau Claire Memorial, second-seeded and 10th-ranked Eau Claire North, fourth-seeded
Chippewa Falls and fifth-seeded Hudson.

“The goals are to just maintain our strong play, maintain
our focus, maintain our team unity and goals, and just give it our best shot
here as we go forward,” said Terpstra. “Playing strong baseball, and get to
that tournament and say, ‘OK, we’re ready, and what happens, happens, but we’re
prepared and we’re going to give it our all and live with the results.’

“But if we stay focused and we keep trying to improve, I
think we can compete with a lot of teams,” he said. “Our Sectional’s very
strong, I’d say there are six really good teams, Hudson, River Falls, Chippewa
Falls, and then the two Eau Claire schools that have their best teams they’ve
had in four, five years.

“So it’s not going to be easy,” he said. “But if our guys
stay focused and keep improving, I like our chances to compete.”