The De Pere baseball team started this season with the pressures of being the top-ranked team in the state and closed it out by living up to all the lofty expectations. For the first time in program history, the Redbirds are state champions after beating Sun Prairie East 5-1 in the WIAA Division 1 title game Thursday night at Fox Cities Stadium.
“We knew we were No. 1 coming in, and we kind of turned that around,” longtime De Pere coach Bob Van Rens said. “The target is not on our back. We are going to go after everybody else. That’s where ‘On the hunt’ came. I give my kids a lot of credit, because that’s not an easy thing seeing yourself as No. 1, knowing that everybody is coming after you.
“To still do what we just did, all the credit to the kids.”
De Pere is the second team from the Green Bay metro area to win a D1 state baseball title since the tournament was split into classes in 1978 and into divisions in 1991. It joins Bay Port (2009 and 2010) in a rather exclusive club. The baseball team is the fourth boys sport at De Pere to win at least one WIAA state championship, joining basketball (1934, 2023), football (1993) and soccer (1993).
“Yeah, it means the world just to do it with the guys I’ve been with since Day 1,” said pitcher-infielder Axel Donaldson, who is one of 15 seniors on the team. “Couldn’t have wrote a better script than this.”
De Pere takes early lead and cruises
The Redbirds (27-3) played almost perfect baseball during their three games on the big stage, something their opponents did not do. That was on display again early in this one. De Pere took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first without a hit or walk. Donaldson, who along with teammate Easton Arendt arguably was one of the MVPs of the four-day tournament, led off the game with a fly ball down the right field line that appeared to be an out until the right fielder whiffed on making the catch. Donaldson ended up on second base after the error. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from Mason Sequin and scored on grounder to first by Arendt, who was safe after a fielding error by the first baseman. Three batters. Two errors. One run.
The Redbirds were just getting started. They took a 4-0 lead in the second, again using an error by the Cardinals to spark the offense and scoring all three runs in the frame with two outs. This time the center fielder let the ball get past him on a hit by infielder Devin Weber, allowing Trenton Kriewaldt to score all the way from first. Donaldson added an RBI single to right center that scored Weber. He followed by stealing second on a failed pickoff attempt and came home on an RBI single to left center from Sequin. A four-run lead turned out to be way more than enough for De Pere starter Landon Raygo.
The senior left-hander followed the dazzling starts of Arendt in the quarterfinals against Menasha and Donaldson in the semifinals against Westosha Central by containing a potent Sun Prairie offense. The Cardinals scored 11 runs against Oak Creek on Wednesday to advance to the title game and had scored 10 or more runs 13 times this season, but it could do almost nothing against Raygo. The only damage came with two outs in the fourth inning, when Sun Prairie drew a walk and had back-to-back singles to bring home its lone run. There was a moment in the top of the sixth with De Pere still up three runs that it appeared Van Rens was contemplating going to Lucas Koskey out of the bullpen after Raygo walked a man with one out. De Pere catcher Jack Nikolay went to the mound to talk with Raygo while Van Rens came out of the dugout and looked down at the bullpen. Raygo responded by promptly getting a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
“I definitely felt in control,” Raygo said. “Knowing my guys behind me will make every play that they get, it’s a great infield and outfield. “It’s why we win.” Donaldson gave De Pere an extra insurance run in the sixth inning. He singled, stole second, took third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a wild pitch. The only suspense remaining was whether Raygo would be able to go the entire way without being forced to come out because of the WIAA’s 100-pitch rule. He got the first two outs of the seventh before walking Luke Damm. On his 100th pitch, Raygo got leadoff hitter Sam Ostrenga to fly out to Arendt in center to end the game.
Let the celebration begin. “It means a lot,” said Arendt, who is off to play at Winona State. “I’m at a loss for words, but it’s a sigh of relief. We worked so hard, and we finally got there.”
De Pere’s pitching sparkles
When the Redbirds look back on their first championship, pitching and defense likely will be the things most remembered. De Pere got all but one out from its three starters. Arendt threw a complete game shutout against Menasha, Donaldson allowed one run in 6⅔ innings against Westosha Central, and Raygo gave up one run and struck out seven in seven innings against Sun Prairie. It doesn’t get much better than two runs in 20⅔ innings. The defense made just one error the entire tournament, while the Redbirds’ opponents combined for eight. Van Rens talked at the beginning of the season about the strength of his pitching staff, and they lived up to everything he believed. “It’s amazing,” Van Rens said. “Our guys just attack. You go against those kinds of teams, and what our pitchers did is a huge credit to those guys. To Coach (Dick) Bos, all the time he works with our pitchers through the season. I give him a lot of credit for how our pitchers get prepared for games, especially these big games. “Really had to control their emotions. I think early in the game they were really hyped up. They really settled in nicely as we went through each game.”
De Pere win was big for past teams, too
The Redbirds twice have been close to winning a state championship only to fall short. They lost 1-0 to Auburndale in the title game in 1960 and again finished runner-up after losing 4-1 to Wisconsin Dells in the Class B championship in 1986. It was almost 38 years ago to the day that Brian Brick was with his teammates at Athletic Park in Wausau as part of that loss to Wisconsin Dells. It still sometimes bothers him almost four decades later. “It haunts me,” said Brick, who played second base. “I did not play my greatest game, and it just haunts me.” He doesn’t have to feel quite as much anguish anymore. As De Pere’s junior varsity coach, there is a much nicer memory to hold onto now. Brick was one of a handful of players from the 1986 team that were spotted at Fox Cities Stadium on Thursday. “It takes a lot of the sting way,” said Brick, who had some tears in his eyes. “I am so proud of these guys. It has been a blast. All 23 of these kids are fantastic kids, and I am so happy for them that they got to experience what I did, but they won the whole damn thing.”
