Three home runs, including a pair by Shiocton senior Talon Heinemeyer, were too much for the Bonduel High School baseball team to overcome in a 6-3 loss Wednesday in Bonduel.
The defeat in the WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal ended the Bears’ season and the high school careers of eight seniors.
Heinemeyer set the tone early, with a first-inning, two-run shot over the right field fence. Riley Woop added another home run in the second inning, and Shiocton added another run in the third on a Bonduel error to take a 4-0 lead.
“We were kind of down in the first part of the game,” Bonduel coach Don Gruenewald said. “The home runs didn’t help. We kind of hung our heads a little bit.”
In the fourth inning, Jacob Wudtke drew a walk, advanced to third on a Travis Wollenberg double and then scored on a Lloyd Allen fly out to center field.
Heinemeyer hit an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning, but the Bears cut the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the inning on Hunter VanderLinden’s two-RBI single.
“We put a couple of innings together where we hit the ball pretty well,” Gruenewald said. “We came back, and they started to get back into it, but we just couldn’t get the hits when we needed them in the end.”
A pitching switch in the sixth seemed to give the Bears’ a lift. Sophomore Trevor Pedersen, who spent most of the season pitching on the junior varsity team, came in for Jake Luepke and struck out the side, but Bonduel did nothing in the bottom to take advantage.
Gruenewald was complimentary of his young reliever.
“Trevor is going to do very well on varsity,” Gruenewald said. “He earned every inning that he got on varsity, because he is the real deal.”
Pedersen continued to pitch well in the seventh, forcing a fly out and a strike out before giving up another home run to Heinemeyer.
That was the only hit Pedersen allowed in two innings of work.
“That’s just a good athlete,” Gruenewald said of Heinemeyer. “He’s a talented kid.”
Shiocton pitcher Gavin Braun, who finished the game with 10 strikeouts, six walks and allowed three runs on five hits, stifled any comeback in the seventh, striking out the first two batters. VanderLinden reached base on an error, but Braun ended the game with a strikeout.
Luepke allowed five runs on five hits. He struck out two and walked two in five innings.
Travis Wollenberg and Colton Dobratz each had two hits for Bonduel.
Gruenewald said it will be hard to say goodbye to the seniors, four of whom were starters.
“They’ll be tough to replace,” Gruenewald said. “A couple of them, Jacob Wudtke, he’s the heart and soul of this team, he’s the backbone, he’s the one that keeps everything together. Jake Luepke, he’s been pitching for two years now, he’s a tough competitor. Kyle Fischer, this year he really stepped up. Lloyd Allen, he had missed part of last year, but he came out and started every game for us.”
Categories
