Youthful Immanuel Lutheran baseball team off to incredible start
· Yahoo Sports
Youth can be a double-edged sword in baseball.
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On one hand, young players provide energy and life to a ballclub leading to wins. But, on the other hand, youthful inexperience can rear its head too often, leading to piles of losses.
The inexperience showed in the Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran Lancers’ 8-11 finish last season.
But, this season, that youth and year’s worth of experience is showing prosperous results, as the Lancers have raced to a 10-0 start and a No. 2 ranking in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Division 4 poll.
“I think a lot of the success can partly be traced back to a lot of freshmen getting time on varsity last year,” Lancers coach Joe Lau said. “I think we got off to kind of a slow start last year because of that.
“So, they came into this season I think with a little bit more confidence, a little bit more knowledge of what to expect at the high school level.”
The Lancers feature a roster with three sophomores, five juniors and five seniors.
It has been last year’s freshman and sophomore class that have led the way so far, especially on the mound and in the field.
Sophomores Derek Wales and Cameron Nelson each spent time towing the rubber as freshmen last year. A year later, that experience is showing itself in Wales’ 0.46 ERA and Nelson’s 2.41 ERA this season.
“I think the biggest difference with Derek this year compared to last year is that he’s throwing quite a bit harder,” Lau said. “I think he just needed to kind of grow into his body. And, Cam throws strikes (and) throws to contact.
“As long as we’re playing good defense, both can be pretty successful.”
Wales, especially, has been brilliant. Across eight starts and one other appearance, Wales has struck out 73 batters in just 45.2 innings pitched.
“Whenever he’s on the mound, I think it gives us that (confidence),” junior catcher Jake Zimmerman said. “Like, (if) we put runs on the board, he’s gonna give us a shot to win.”
Behind them, the Lancers have committed just 17 errors this season, helping contribute to four shutouts and holding opponents to a measly 1.3 runs per game.
In the batter’s box, the Lancers aren’t the most imposing. Yet, knowing they have Wales and Nelson on the mound, the Lancers find ways to manufacture runs in any way they can.
“It’s a situation where we know our defense has been good this year,” junior center fielder Sawyer Sydow said. “We know that we just need to get runs on the board and we have a chance to win any game.
“So, it’s one hit at a time. It’s a lot of getting runners on (and) guys will do the job and get them around.”
Nelson, who also plays shortstop, leads the team in hits (17) and RBI (11), while Wales is second in hits with 14. Zimmerman and Sydow, along with sophomore Seth Bernthal, have also impressed Lau, combining for nine of the team’s 16 extra-base hits.
“Pitching can really lead into hitting,” Wales said. “Something Jake told me a bunch was, ‘Use your confidence when you pitch so when you go up to hit, just keep that confidence.’”
“We’re becoming more aware of how to score runs and how to move runners up,” Lau said. “I think through the course of this season, I’ve seen more consistency with our approach at the plate than we had early on.”
Early on, Lau’s expectations were to be better than last season. Those expectations skyrocketed after early season wins over conference rival Blair-Taylor and Division 2 Bloomer.
“I feel like after that first game (against Blair-Taylor), we saw that we could be a good team and we keep improving,” Sydow said.
“I think it got to a point where we kind of figured out that we can kind of compete with anybody,” Zimmerman said.
With expectations and a state ranking as high as ever, the young Lancers aren’t getting ahead of themselves, but believe the good times can continue.
“I (would) just like us to continue to play good ball,” Lau said. “There might be games where things just don’t go our way, and we pick up a loss or two. But, I think we’re doing the right things to be successful right now and that’s what I’d like to see us continue to do.”