Germantown — Before announcing his resignation a few short days later, Germantown baseball coach Parrish Wagner provided Warhawks baseball fans with one final lasting memory.
He hopes the memory - that of his team's unexpected run to the WIAA Summer Baseball State Tournament for the first time in more than two decades - is the building block of future successes, albeit without him.
"It's a nice thing to hang your hat on," Wagner said following his nfl jerseys team's 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Waukesha West at Bukolt Park in Stevens Point on July 29.
"You come into every season, you have your open gyms and the kids start throwing, playing their spring ball and getting ready for the first day of practice. This is where you want to be, this is where you want your last game to be played, whether it's the quarterfinals or the finals. This is what you shoot for. Everyone talks about going to Stevens Point. We got to experience that and it's something the kids will never forget."
Losing record
The unforgettable run ended a few games sooner than the Warhawks would have liked, but the nine-day stretch of postseason baseball turned in by Germantown lifted the only team with a losing record - the Warhawks finished 14-17 - into the state field of eight teams for the first time since 1986.
Germantown's final four games of the season were all decided by one run, starting with a 4-3 regional final upset of Hamilton followed by victories over Slinger (3-2) and top-seeded Menomonee Falls (2-1) in the sectional.
"(Making it to state) gives the kids a little spirit and hope for everybody," Wagner said. "You don't have to finish 32-2 to make it here. It's learning from every game you play. It's building momentum and putting things together, putting the puzzle pieces in the right place for the last stretch and that's what we did. It was a nice run, a lot of fun."
The fun was nearly extended past the quarterfinal. The Warhawks took a 1-0 lead off Waukesha West starter Jeff Neuman on an RBI ground out by Jordan Infield that snapped a scoreless tie, but in the bottom half of Patriots jersey the inning, the Wolverines touched Germantown sophomore reliever Brian Keller for two runs (one earned). In the top of the seventh, West closer Ryan Solberg worked around a hit batsmen with two strikeouts to slam the door on the Warhawks.
The decisive top of the sixth inning started with an infield error. Two batters later, Solberg ripped an RBI triple and later scored on Aaron Jushka's base hit.
"We always talk about giving a team 22, 23 outs," Wagner said. "Well, we gave them 22, and we only made them make 19. We got ourselves out twice and those were big innings. We got a guy picked off (first base in fourth inning) after a leadoff base hit and the mishap at second base," when a Germantown runner missed the base in the fifth inning.
Solid pitching
The Warhawks, by far the lightest-hitting team at the tournament with a team average of .262, managed just three hits and not including the miscue in the fifth had just two base runners advance past second base against Neuman and Solberg.
"That's what (Neuman) has done all year for us," Waukesha West coach Chad Montez said. "He throws strikes consistently. He's not going to throw it by you; his slider is his best pitch and if he can throw that for a strike consistently and we play defense behind him, we'll be in every game.
"(Solberg) has been our closer all year and his leadership and experience and his presence - I mean, you put a 6-5 guy on the mound that throws fairly hard - he makes me relax a little more."
Keller and starter Tyler Thicke were almost equally impressive for Germantown. Thicke, a University of Indiana recruit who worked his way back into the starting rotation following elbow surgery that made him miss nearly all of the 2009 season, was removed with one out in the top of Saints jersey the first inning after surrendering a triple to Jushka. It was the only hit allowed by the senior left-hander, who struck out four and walked two.
"Tyler had a great run and we paced him all year and got him ready for the big games we wanted him to play," Wagner said. "He's been going on a full week's rest (all season). We're still working on his rehab program. He pitched on short rest for the third time in a row. It was a situation where he exerted a lot of effort the last couple of weeks and it was time to make a move. We were monitoring him, his innings and his pitches. I made a decision.
"It was a good decision for him and the team because Brian did a great job."
Keller got out of the fourth-inning jam with a pair of ground-ball outs and pitched a perfect fifth before being derailed ever so slightly by the leadoff error in the sixth.
The game was originally scheduled to be played July 28. Three quarterfinals followed a delay of 2 hours, 30 minutes to prepare the field from the previous night's rainfall, but when it came time for Germantown and Waukesha West to take the field at approximately 8:45 p.m., an electrical failure kept the field lights out at Bukolt Park. The game was finally postponed until the following day after another 80-minute delay as fans, coaches and players sat in the dark waiting for word from the WIAA.
"It was kind of a cluster and we dealt with a lot of adversity, but so did (the Wolverines)," Wagner said.
North of football jersey expected
The North Shore Conference had three state tournament representatives last month. Here is a breakdown of the field:
NORTH SHORE: (3) Germantown, Grafton, West Bend West
CLASSIC 8: (1) Waukesha West
DAIRLYAND: (1) West Salem
EASTERN WISCONSIN: (1) New Holstein
GREATER METRO: (1) Franklin
WOODLAND: (1) New Berlin West
More quarterfinal photos: → Page 13
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