Bay's potent offense leads team into postseason

Brown Deer - There have been headaches recently for Whitefish Bay baseball coach Jay Wojcinski recently (see the forgettable 11-1 loss to area rival Shorewood on July 11 for the most current example), but for the most part, the bat-heavy Blue Dukes are heading into the WIAA tournament on a positive and productive note.

Take for example the last three games of the regular season, which included a 15-5 rout of Catholic Memorial last Saturday, a 13-1 bombing of Greenfield last Friday and an 11-4 beat down of Waukesha South July 14.

It all left Wojcinski feeling a little bit better about his 17-13 squad than he was a few days before the run started.

"The bats are everything right now," said Wojcinski. "We hit the ball pretty well all weekend and our pitchers have held up better than we thought. We really don't have a clear No. 1 or 2 right now but everyone is contributing."

The Blue Dukes hosted Brown Deer (19-11) in a WIAA regional final on Tuesday night (see separate story). If they won, they would come back at 10 a.m. Friday to Cahill Park for a WIAA sectional semifinal game against either top-seeded Nicolet or Port Washington.

The sectional final, with a berth in the state tournament on the line, is at 4 p.m. The Blue Dukes have won eight of their last 10 and have reached double digits in runs five times in that stretch.

Leading the way is big first baseman Garrett Demuth, who has pushed his average above .500. He was a one-man wrecking crew against Greenfield, as he had three hits, including two home runs and seven RBI.

"He's doing well, but so is everyone else," said Wojcinski.

In the rout of Memorial, a seven-run fourth did the trick as the Blue Dukes pounded out 17 hits, including a 3-for-3 effort by James Stecker, who had a double, a home run and four RBI, while Jackson Weber had two hits and four RBI.

Help also came in the form of Justin Alt (three hits and two RBI), Grant Menard (two hits and two RBI) and Demuth (two hits).

Pat Rose got the win, throwing four innings (three strikeouts and two walks) with relief help from Joe Fiorita and Phil Kistler.

As noted, Demuth led the way for the Blue Dukes in the rout of Greenfield. They scored nine times in the first and four in the second in the five-inning effort as Bay's pitchers, led by Jack Fagan, allowed only two hits while the Blue Duke hitters rocked Greenfield pitching to the tune of 17 hits.

The Blue Dukes had 18 hits in the win over South as Bobby Linneman got the win.

Wojcinski was pleased with the team's response this week.

"I told them after Shorewood that we didn't lose the seventh game of the World Series or anything else important," he said. "We just didn't play well and they (the Greyhounds) did. Today's another day.

"I'm glad they've taken that to heart."