Shawano baseball team earns wild win over Lux-Casco

The Shawano Community High School baseball team earned a comeback 9-8 nonconference win over Luxemburg-Casco on May 4 in Shawano.

The start and finish to the game weren’t the prettiest innings for the Hawks, but the hosts dominated the middle innings to come out on top.

Brady Glysch was a big reason why Shawano was able to rally, as he came on in relief and pitched four clean innings. When he first stepped on the mound, the Hawks trailed 6-1, but by the time he left, the hosts led 9-6.

Glysch faced the minimum 12 batters in his first four frames of work before Lux-Casco finally chased him in the seventh.

“Well, it’s all about throwing strikes; that’s my main thing,” said Glysch. “My arm was hurt at the start of the year, so it’s nice to come back out there. I really enjoy pitching, so I’m doing what I love and that’s the bottom line.”

Shawano got back into the game with a pair of runs in the third inning.

Ashton Henning tripled to open the frame before scoring on a Bryce Popp groundout. Michael Metcalf-Grassman then walked before he stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Jacob Landon single.

The Hawks put together a four-run fourth to take their first lead of the contest.

The frame started with Crew Weisnicht being plunked by a pitch. He moved over to third as Carsen Herm ended up on second after an error.

Pete Bruette then reached on a fielder’s choice, as Lux-Casco tried unsuccessfully to throw out Weisnicht at home. Jerzy Brocker then plated courtesy runner Austin Peters with a sacrifice fly that also moved Bruette over third after he had previously swiped second.

Henning walked before a passed ball allowed him to move to second and Bruette to score. Popp singled in Henning to give the Hawks the lead.

Shawano loaded the bases later in the frame but weren’t able to capitalize any further.

After Glysch worked another quick inning, Shawano tacked on its final two runs in the fifth.

Herm, who threw out a baserunner from behind the plate in the previous half inning, opened the frame with a triple. Brady Hannes came through with a sacrifice fly to score Peters, who was again courtesy running.

After a Henning double and Popp walk later in the frame, Metcalf-Grassman singled to score Henning.

After neither team scored in the sixth, Lux-Casco singled and doubled to open the seventh and chase Glysch. Popp replaced him and immediately got a flyout for the first out, although a run did score on the play.

Popp got the second out on a strikeout and then induced a grounder that looked to end the game, but an error allowed a run to score and the inning to continue. Popp got another strikeout to strand the game-tying run on third.

Despite it being a nonconference win, it was a confidence-boosting victory for the Hawks, who have some big conference games looming in the weeks ahead.

“It just shows that we can hit the ball. We had good, big innings that we can use later on,” said Glysch. “Say we get down in one of those conference games; we know we can get back and out of that.”

“I think it’s a good boost of momentum,” said Henning. “We have a big week next week. So I think getting a win at the end of this week here, it will help boost us and be confident for the games ahead of us.”

The first two innings were less than memorable for Shawano, as Lux-Casco seemed to find a hole in the Hawks’ defense with every batted ball.

The visitors opened the game with four straight singles off Tom Keszo, but a sacrifice bunt led to the first out before Keszo induced a liner that had double play written all over it. Unfortunately, the ball was dropped on the throw to third, allowing the inning to continue and two more runs to be plated.

Shawano got a run back in the bottom half after Keszo singled in Popp, but a double play groundout wiped out a potentially big inning and erased the team’s momentum.

An error with two outs in the second allowed Lux-Casco to score twice more and go ahead 6-1.

“I think we’re definitely used to it and that we trust in our players,” said Henning of the team overcoming the early deficit. “We’ve been in that situation before so we stayed calm, and we knew what we had the ability to do. We stayed calm, and it turned out in our favor.”

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