If the first few games are any indication, the Oconto Falls Legion baseball team should have a productive Fox River Valley season.
The team finished 17-13 last year, compiling a 6-8 record in the FRV North Division, and finished second in its regional tourney.
Oconto Falls is 2-2 to start the 2015 season and 1-1 in the FRV-North.
“We will pitch well, play a very solid defense and will compete,” Oconto Falls coach Chris Hillberg said. “Our hitting will determine how far this team will go.”
Hillberg noted the team is thin on the bench, with just 12 players on the squad, including newcomer Wesley Brabant.
Oconto Falls started the season June 10 with a Riley Gruetzmacher no-hitter in a 5-0 win at Shawano. Gruetzmacher struck out nine batters.
Gruetzmacher’s innings were limited last year because he also played with the Summer U17 Wisconsin All-Stars.
Greutzmacher and Hunter Magnin, the division’s two-time most valuable pitcher, give Oconto Falls a formidable one-two punch on the mound.
Magnin struck out a division-leading 45 hitters last season, including 19 over two games. He issued 12 walks in 38 1/3 innings. He allowed 11 earned runs on 38 hits. He had a 2.01 ERA and 1.31 WHIP (walks and hits divided by innings pitched).
Magnin also contributed at the plate, collecting nine hits in 24 at-bats and scoring eight runs.
However, the team will be without its leading hitter, Colton Giese, who drove in a team-leading 15 runs, scored nine and collected 15 hits in 46 at bats for a .326 batting average. Also gone from last year’s squad are Derek Zahn, Bo Shroyer, Alex Johnson, Dylan Woosman Taylor Brabant and Luke Truckey.
Pitcher Evan Sigmund will pick up additional innings this year after appearing in just 9 1/3 innings in 2014.
Offensively, the team will rely on Magnin, Sam Shroyer, Connor Sefcik, Mike Manns, Brett and Bryce Ash, Dalton Curl, Kamin Vandenlangenberg and Joey Wolford.
Shroyer hit .375 with six RBIs.
Sefcik batted .293 (11 for 41) with a double, nine runs scored and nine RBIs.
The maximum age for players competing in the senior circuit of the American Legion is 19.
