By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
SUAMICO – Pitcher Jett Thielke struck out 10, catcher Jake Berg homered and the Bay Port baseball team rallied late in a 3-2 Fox River Classic Conference victory over Green Bay Southwest April 10 at Bay Port High School.
The game was originally scheduled for Southwest, but field conditions there prompted the change.
Thielke, a Madison College recruit, struck out at least one batter in each of his six innings of work to improve the Pirates to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the FRCC.
The lanky righty walked one and allowed one earned run.
“My main goal was to get ahead of batters. and that’s what I did,” said Thielke, whose fastball is about 87 mph. “My slider was working good, and my defense played really well behind me. It was a good team win.”
With Bay Port trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, Berg blasted an 0-1 fastball from Southwest (3-2, 1-2) starter Bret Whiffen over the right-center fence to jump-start the Pirates’ offense, which up to that point, had only four hits.
“I was looking fastball, and that’s what I got,” said Berg. “I didn’t think it was gone when I hit it – I thought it was going to hit the fence due to the cold weather.”
Carl Cano, Call Verlanic and Thielke (RBI) had consecutive singles after the Berg blast to chase Whiffen before Cole Weber knocked in the final run on a groundout.
“Whiffen pitched well and kept us off balance for a while,” said Bay Port head coach Mike Simeons. “I thought we’d eventually start timing him, so I’m proud of the guys for coming back late in the game like that. That was Thielke’s best outing of the year – he did a great job. If he pitches like that for us all year, we are going to win a lot of games. Berg had a nice hit and also had some nice blocked balls defensively behind the plate.”
Whiffen cruised through the first five innings for Southwest but ran into trouble in the sixth after retiring Bryce DeBouche on a grounder he snagged that was heading for center field.
“It’s early in the season, but I thought Whiffen pitched well,” said Southwest head coach Tate McMillan. “He only threw 66 pitches, so as the season goes along, he will get stronger. Our pitcher wasn’t the issue – Thielke should be given all the credit. Even with our run in the first inning, we got a little lucky. He’s as good as anyone we’ve faced this season. It was a good, clean game for us. Against De Pere (a 12-6 loss), we had eight errors.”
Whiffen, whose defense didn’t commit an error, allowed all three runs on eight hits while striking out three and walking none.
Southwest got a single tally in the first to jump ahead 1-0.
With one out, Jared Mountin struck out but reached first on a wild pitch by Thielke.
After Luke Platkowski sent Mountin to third with a double, Whiffen plated Mountin with a sacrifice fly to right.
Verlanic pitched the final inning for Bay Port, but it wasn’t without a little drama.
The Trojans had the tying run at third with two outs in the seventh, but Verlanic struck out Mountin to end the game.
Jaicee Foster, who led off the frame with a single, scored later in the inning on an outfield error to make it 3-2.
“We gave it a go in the seventh but came up a little short,” McMillan added, who is in his second season at Southwest. “I’d like to see us pick up our intensity a little bit, but that will come with being outside a little bit more.”
Berg and Thielke each added another hit for the Pirates, while Brock Noe and Drew Slaasted also had base knocks.
Box score
Green Bay Southwest: 100 000 1 – 2 5 0
Bay Port: 000 003 x – 3 8 1