Sports Youth is served for Panther baseball

PLYMOUTH – The Plymouth baseball team and its followers should be excited about the 2011 season, coming off a year in which the young Panthers exceeded expectations.

Although they had 11 underclassmen, including six freshmen, and only three seniors, the Panthers had a winning season at 15-12 and shared fourth in the Eastern Wisconsin Conference with a 9-9 record.

“Winning 15 games is a nice accomplishment. We probably won more games than we should’ve lost than losing games we should’ve won,” said PHS head coach Butch Cain.

“We competed each time out, the players had good attitudes and tried to help each other. A couple of the veterans took leadership roles and helped the younger guys.

“For the most part, our veterans played well and the youth at times played well. Our youth got an understanding of what varsity baseball is about and hopefully that well help us next year,” Cain pointed out.

The coach mentioned the highlights for the Panthers this past season.

“We beat Campbellsport and we hadn’t done that for awhile. We beat New Holstein and had Kewaskum on the ropes twice,” he said.

Kewaskum won the EWC going away with an impressive 17-1 record. New Holstein was a state qualifier and took second in the league. Campbellsport, which placed third in the EWC, lost twice to PHS.

The Panthers’ victories over Brookfield Central and West Bend East, perennially good ballclubs, were also bright spots for PHS, according to Cain.

He stated the key factors in the Panthers’ success this past season.

“Our pitching was able to keep us in games. We were able to move runners over [via bunts, stealing, hitand runs and taking the ball the other way],” Cain said.

He said it was important for the Panthers to be able to advance runners because they didn’t have a lot of power.

“We had to manufacture runs sometimes. Most of the time, we did that well,” Cain recalled.

“On defense, we continued to battle and improve all year.

“Our execution [on offense and defense] and the ability to get the job done probably helped us win many close games.”

Cain thought his team progressed well overall in 2010 and that the younger players gained good experience for 2011.

“We showed our youth at times but we had to live with that. We made the right decisions and the routine plays more than we didn’t,” he noted.

Cain commended his team’s seniors, Jake Rathsack, Ryan Klecka and Greg Rhude, for what they meant to the program over the past four years.

“We’re going to miss the seniors. These are three guys who made a commitment to our program. They worked on their games, have done a lot as individuals and helped our program,” the coach said.

“I wish them good luck in college.”

All three 2010 PHS graduates are planning to play college sports – Rathsack and Rhude in baseball at UW-Stevens Point and Concordia University (Mequon), respectively, and Klecka in soccer at UWPlatteville.

Cain expressed thanks to everyone who supported the Panther baseball program this year, including the booster club, community and his assistant coaches Dave Hein, Adam Starnitcky and Rory Beebe. Cain also thanked Todd Starnitcky for taking photos during the season.

He hopes that more players in the future will make a commitment to PHS baseball.

“It’s disheartening that we’re losing the commitment from some of our already-proven and coached baseball players,” said Cain. “We’re going to make sure we get kids committed to baseball all four years.

“We’re hoping that the commitment we [players and coaches] put in will pay off.

“We want the guys to make the needed adjustments to be better baseball players and make continued strides to improve their overall games.

“We’re real optimistic about next season,” Cain added.

FINAL STATS, AWARDS

Rathsack had an outstanding season at the plate as he led PHS in batting with a .444 average; RBIs, 24; hits, 40; and home runs, two. He also stole a team-high 14 bases.

Rhude was first in doubles with 10.

Trevor Thiel and Jake Klemme paced the pitching staff in victories with five each. Klemme led in ERA with 2.70. Rhude had a team-best 68 strikeouts in 66 innings.

The Panthers’ varsity letter winners include: seniors – Klecka, Rhude and Rathsack; juniors – Kendrick Hoehn and Thiel; sophomores – Zach Strege (team manager), Klemme, Brandon Wollner, Adam Pruitt and Kurt Schmitz; and freshmen – Tony Arnold, Kevin Friederichs, Ryan Schieble, Eric Leinen, Matt Gannon and Matt Rhude.