The pursuit of perfection is different in baseball than other sports, for this reason: You can’t double-team a pitcher.
Unlike any other sport, baseball is unique in that a good pitcher on a bad team can take down a team of all-stars. It’s a team game, but within that team game is the essential, individual battle between hitter and pitcher, and if you can’t hit what he’s dealing, it doesn’t matter whether the eight behind him can catch it or not. It’s why the best teams in the major leagues lose 60 times a year, and it’s why a significant winning streak is a pretty big thing.
A pretty big thing came to an end Tuesday when the Bonduel High School baseball team dropped a 1-0 decision to perennial powerhouse Shiocton, closing out the Bears’ season-opening 13-game winning streak.
At the outset of the season, Bonduel coach Donnie Gruenewald liked his team’s chances to stay competitive because of the solid nucleus of seniors with varsity experience. The Bears’ 13-0 start, the best for any baseball team in the school’s history, exceeded expectations.
“If you’d told me at the start of the year that we’d start off 13-0 and 9-0 in conference, I’d … have taken it,” he said. “It was beyond what we’d anticipated.”
Not surprisingly, a good part of Bonduel’s success can be traced to the spot 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. Pitcher Connor Rosin has been outstanding, as his 4-0 record befits his station as No. 1 starter in Gruenewald’s rotation. Rosin also has two homers and leads the team with a .428 batting average. Trevor Pedersen pitched a three-hitter in the loss to Shiocton, and although he fell to 4-1, his earned run average stayed below 1.00.
Like all good teams, Bonduel has adjusted to adversity. Shortstop Hunter Vanderlinden, one of the mainstays offensively and defensively, was hitting .419 with three home runs when he injured a hamstring in a win over Amherst. Vanderlinden, one of four reliable arms in the stable, pitched in three games and allowed just two earned runs. Until his soon-expected return, he has been replaced at shortstop by Travis Wollenberg, who moved over from third base and handled short flawlessly.
Wollenberg, who also pitches, is hitting .378. His 3-0 record as a pitcher looks even better by his not having allowed an earned run all season. Don’t let the “earned runs” thing fool you, either — Bonduel has committed only 16 errors in 14 games.
Bailey Dingeldein is hitting .387 with a homer, and Colton Dobratz is batting .300 for the Bears, who during an early four-game span scored 69 runs.
“We’d been hitting line drives all over the field,” Gruenewald said. “Lately we’ve been popping up a bit, but we’ll get it back. This is a laid-back group, but they know what they have to do, and they do it. I don’t think losing once is going to bother them. They’ll just pick up where we left off and get back to it.”
Bonduel, which had been averaging 10 runs per game before losing to Shiocton, can control its destiny in the league and secure at least a co-championship by winning out. The Bears, who beat Shiocton in their earlier matchup, play a doubleheader Thursday at defending conference champion Iola-Scandinavia.
After the conference season is sorted out, the Bears take their chops into the postseason and see what kind of havoc they can create in the Division 3 playoffs.
First, there is the regular-season finale to determine neighborhood bragging rights, against Shawano.
“I like that we’re playing them,” Gruenewald said. “It’s good for the kids to play against other kids from the area, kids they might know and hang out with.”
What’s not to like? Neighborhood rivalry, two successful programs, late May afternoon. Familiarity of this sort usually means you can toss the win-loss records out the window.
Before defenestrating all those W’s, though, the Bears might want one more peek. This season is already a keeper, and if they have a finish cooked up anything like the start, it will be one interesting June.
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