New Berlin West baseball eyes bigger prize

New Berlin — Entering the first of two weeks of WIAA summer baseball postseason action, the New Berlin West Vikings found themselves in a familiar position: the underdog.

And frankly, it's a position that has served the Vikings well all summer, one they rose above to clinch a share of their fourth straight conference title and one they hope to rise above again to claim their first-ever state tournament berth.

"I like our chances," said West coach Tom Farina, whose team was scheduled to host Pius XI in a regional final Tuesday, after deadline. "Are we a favorite? No, we're not a favorite. But we haven't been a favorite all year long. That doesn't bother us; that doesn't scare us."

The favorites to win the New Berlin West Sectional, to be played Friday, are top-seeded New Berlin Eisenhower and second-seeded Marquette. Eisenhower has a sectional-best 28 wins, is coming off its first conference crown since 1996 and is looking for its first state tournament appearance since 1989.

Marquette has won the sectional five consecutive years, won state championships in 2006 and 2008 and was the runner-up to Arrowhead last summer. The Hilltoppers tied for third in the Greater Metro Conference and entered the postseason 21-13.

"Eisenhower has had a great season; they are the favorite," Farina said. "Marquette is Marquette. They absolutely know how to get it done at this time of year. Until someone knocks them off, they are the sectional champion and they have been for years. Yes, we have our hands full, but if we lose our focus, which should be on Pius, there's a chance we won't even be playing on Friday.

"Win lose or draw we've enjoyed our season a lot."

Beating the odds

That's because the Vikings bucked the odds to tie Cudahy atop the Woodland Conference Blue Division standings at 18-5 despite being three games behind the Packers at one point this season.

"Obviously, they played some very, very solid baseball during that time," Farina said of his players. "If we had any lapses at all, we were able to overcome them. We got super pitching performances from everybody, for the most part, very solid defense and we put up some runs the last two and a half, three weeks."

All were the case in the final week of the regular season, during which the Vikings swept three games from St. Thomas More, a team still in title contention entering last week, and beat Shorewood.

Needing a win in the league finale against visiting St. Thomas More on July 15 to tie Cudahy, which had finished its season one day earlier, the Vikings scored four runs in each of the first four innings and pounded out 16 hits in a 16-4 victory.

Jesse Riehle (home run, three runs, five RBIs), Jake Rink (two doubles, four RBIs), Zach Scholz (four runs) and Adrian Peil (three runs, two RBIs) had three hits each for the Vikings, and Brad Duggan earned the win with five strikeouts in five innings.

It was the ninth straight league win for West, which ended the regular season with a 16-7 nonconference home loss to Brookfield Central on Friday to finish 21-10.

Looking beyond conference

"We want a little more than (a conference title)," Riehle told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "We want to go to state and win state. We know there's more work to be done."

Before the title-clinching win over St. Thomas More, the Vikings also swept a road doubleheader from the Cavaliers, 6-1 and 9-6, July 12.

Duggan allowed just four hits with six strikeouts to win the first game and was helped by home runs from Riehle and Scholz.

In the second game, the Vikings tied the score at 4-4 with a run in the top of the seventh inning off St. Thomas More ace Mike Wasilik and then tagged him for five runs in the eighth.

"They brought in Wasilik to close out the game; he'd been very successful doing that," Farina said. "We came back and tied it in the seventh and scored five runs off him in the eighth to win. That shows to me a lot of character. They have a lot of will to win, a desire to win."

West also picked up an 11-4 road win over Shorewood on July 13, as Jake Rink went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and Riehle picked up the complete-game victory.

For Farina, this year's conference title was as sweet as the previous three.

"Each one of them is obviously special and each team is a little bit different," Farina said. "Some of the teams we've had, especially the '07, '08 teams, they were such solid teams we knew we should win the title with them. (This season) with four young sophomores coming up and only one senior (Riehle) that started most of the time, it was more of a challenge."

Statement time

Number of state tournament appearances for 21 schools in NOW area with last appearance in parentheses:

9: Nicolet (2006)

8: Homestead (2009)

7: Franklin (2009)

6: Brookfield Central (2001); Brown Deer (2008)

5: Greendale (1993); Menomonee Falls (2008); Oak Creek (2008)

4: Greenfield (1984); Muskego (2009);

3: Wauwatosa East (2004); Whitnall (2001)

2: Brookfield East (1988); West Allis Central (1995)

1: Germantown (1986); New Berlin Eisenhower (1989); Whitefish Bay (2002)

0: New Berlin West, Shorewood, Wauwatosa West, West Allis Hale