WIAC Preview

By Ricky Nelson, D3sports.com

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) features a mix of teams in transition, the status quo and teams on the rise. The traditional contending trio of UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater and UW Oshkosh should contend again this season. But an intriguing team of veterans at UW-La Crosse could play its way to the three-team WIAC Tournament in May. The Pointers, Warhawks and Titans have all made the WIAC Tournament every year but two since its inception in 1998. This year could mark the third time, but UW-Stevens Point is our WIAC preseason favorite.

UW-Whitewater (37-13, 18-6 WIAC) won the WIAC regular season title, finished third in the three-team WIAC Tournament and then rebounded to sweep through the regional as the No. 3 seed. But getting to the World Series was a battle. UW-Whitewater won three one-run games at the regional, including one in extra innings, before downing St. Scholastica, 6-3, to earn the trip up Highway 26 to Fox Cities Stadium for the fourth time in 14 regional appearances.

In its World Series opener, UW-Whitewater scored twice in the ninth to tie the score, but Buena Vista walked off the Warhawks in the bottom of the frame. UW-Whitewater bounced back the next day with a win over Western New England in an elimination game, but Chapman ended the Warhawks’ season on the third day with a 4-2 win. Senior D3baseball.com Third Team All-America utility Jeff Donovan added World Series all-tournament honors to his Most Outstanding Player award from the regional. Donovan batted .583 with a 1.083 slugging percentage and tossed 6.1 innings in Appleton.

UW-Whitewater won 30 or more games for the fourth consecutive season and seventh time in head coach John Vodenlich’s eight years at the helm. But many of the players who spearheaded the latest Warhawk run of success saw their careers end in 2011.

Donovan (.403 AVG, 9 HR, 55 RBI, .716 SLG; 10-0, 3.54 ERA, 89 IP, 75 K), former D3baseball.com All-America pitcher Riley Tincher (10-4, 2.93 ERA, 101.1 IP, 15 BB) and D3baseball.com Second Team All-America outfielder Daniel Putnam (.396 AVG, 62 R, .487 OBP, 29 SB) headline a slew of Warhawks who won’t be back in 2012 for Vodenlich, a four-time WIAC Coach of the Year, four-time regional Coach of the Year and manager of the Northwoods League’s expansion Lakeshore Chinooks. Tempering the player losses is the addition of assistant coach Brian Gillogy, the former head coach at Luther and Marian colleges.

Donovan set the UW-Whitewater season record with 22 doubles in 2011 and ends his career as the school’s leader in at-bats (698), runs (195), hits (248), runs batted in (204), doubles (66, WIAC record) and walks (111). Tincher went 25-5 in his career. Putnam tied the school record with 29 steals in 2011.

Besides losing that trio of stars, UW-Whitewater will also go into the season without utility first team All-WIAC Rob Coe (.350 AVG, 49 R, 48 RBI; 1-1, 0.73 ERA, 2 SV), who signed as a pitcher with the St. Paul Saints in June, two other important bats – Brent Young (.286 AVG, 22 RBI) and honorable mention All-WIAC Andrew Eichstaedt (.324 AVG, 54 R, 33 RBI) – and junior No. 3 starter and honorable mention All-WIAC Justin Lambert (6-4, 3.86 ERA, 74.2 IP) is expected to miss the season due to injury. The seven missing pieces accounted for 825 at-bats and 277.1 innings pitched, not to mention 73 percent of the team’s pitching wins and 56 percent of the runs scored from a team that finished 10th in the country with 389 runs scored and seventh with 2.35 walks allowed per nine.

“We lost three All-Americans and six starters,” Vodenlich said. “That’s the most in quite some time. We have a strong nucleus of young players with some good senior leadership.”

Four regular starters return to the lineup, none of whom made the all-conference team. However, outfielders Dylan Friend (.278 AVG, 4 HR, 32 RBI) and Matt Beyer (.273 AVG, 37 R, 11 SB) were named to the 2011 All-Tournament team at regionals. The rest of the projected lineup is expected be filled by returning players in expanded roles, although Vodenlich has four incoming transfers, including one apiece from Division-I and Division-II.

Returnees expected to fill in the rotation after the mass exodus are senior Jack Larsen (2-0, 2.10 ERA, 30 IP), sophomore Matthew Roberts (2-1, 3.58 ERA, 27.2 IP) and senior Kyle Lee (3-1, 5.91 ERA, 29 IP). Senior Eric Schmitz (2-1, 1 SV, 27.1 IP, 28 K) figures to once again be a key cog in the bullpen.

The revamped Warhawks start a schedule, which includes an early March date with St. Thomas and a mid-April clash with St. Scholastica, at the Metrodome on March 7. The Warhawks went 23-2 last season at home, where they’ll play all eight regular season games against WIAC rivals UW-Stevens Point and UW Oshkosh.

UW-Stevens Point (34-10, 20-4 WIAC) won 20 conference games and the regular season title, accomplishing both for the first time since 2002. The Pointers then won their ninth WIAC Tournament crown in the 14-year history of the event and rolled into the UW-Whitewater Regional on a 13-game winning streak as the No. 1 seed. But the heralded Pointer offense scored 11 runs in four games at regionals, and they were eliminated after a 2-2 showing that included two one-run losses, the last of which was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of conference rival UW-Whitewater.

Ninth-year head coach Pat Bloom has led four teams to the World Series, but if he’s to add another appearance in 2012 it will be in front of a different cast and crew, on the field and in the dugout. The Pointers lost six starters and four assistant coaches from a team that suffered one losing streak, ranked 13th in the nation with a .338 batting average, sixth with a .973 fielding percentage and won by an average of four runs per game.

Bloom, the 2011 WIAC Coach of the Year, bolstered his coaching staff with the addition of Jeremy Jirschele, the second baseman on D3baseball.com’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s and older brother of Justin, the current Pointer junior starting third baseman and national Gold Glove winner. Two former Pointers will also join the staff part time.

Bloom’s player losses will be difficult to replace. Senior-to-be D3baseball.com Second Team All-America utility Cody Koback (.424 AVG, 71 R, .516 OBP; 6-1, 3.26 ERA, .227 OBA) won’t be back after being the second D-III player selected, as an outfielder in the 10th round, of the 2011 Major League Draft. Koback, the 2011 WIAC Position Player of the Year, led the nation in runs scored. Koback isn’t even the only pro player Bloom needs to replace after honorable mention D3baseball.com All-America pitcher Scott Williams (11-2, 2.76 ERA, 98 IP, 101 K) signed a free agent deal with the Washington Nationals in July.

If two professional All-Americans weren’t enough, UW-Stevens Point also loses five more departing seniors: pitcher Joel Delorit (5-4, 2.91 ERA, 74.1 IP, 65 K), three-time All-WIAC shortstop Eric Fritz (.289 AVG, 28 R), outfielder Jared Surman (.271 AVG, 23 RBI) and the two-man catching platoon. But the 2012 offense should be a strong suit once again, proving the quality of depth in the program.

Honorable mention D3baseball.com All-America junior second baseman Dan Douglas (.420 AVG, 45 R, .993 FLD) highlights the returning bats that include first team All-WIAC Jirschele (.382 AVG, 48 RBI, .970 FLD), junior first team All-WIAC first baseman Sean Gerber (.400 AVG, 41 RBI, .988 FLD) and sophomore honorable mention All-WIAC outfielder Casey Barnes (.383 AVG, 22 R). Junior Ryan Schilter (.333 AVG, 43 R, 16 SB), a transfer from Concordia Wisconsin, is expected to start at catcher. And two prized high school recruits from Wisconsin, Jimmy Coady and Cody Hanke, should also find time in the lineup. Bloom scooped up a total of 10 all-state high school players in his latest recruiting class.

It’s the rotation that has yet to prove itself. Delorit and Williams rank second and third all-time in career strikeouts at UW-Stevens Point, Williams is the program’s career leader with 27 wins and both are in the WIAC top five in career innings pitched. When factoring Koback into the equation, those three combined to start 31 of the Pointers’ 44 games last year. The good news is that a steady offense should allow a young staff find itself a year after the mainstays held teams to a 3.53 earned run average.

A new era on the mound will begin with three mostly untested sophomores leading the staff: Zach Wendorf (1-0, 24.1 IP), Max Frederick (1-0, 11.1 IP) and Brad Stroik (1-0, 5.2 IP). Senior first team All-WIAC closer Ryan Iverson (4-1, 1.47 ERA, 10 SV) returns on the back end. Iverson needs 10 saves to tie the career WIAC record.

UW-Stevens Point begins the season against Gustavus Adolphus at the Metrodome on March 4, followed by a trip to Florida that will feature a marquee doubleheader against St. Thomas. The sticking point to a potential conference title is that the Pointers play all eight games on the road against perennial contenders UW-Whitewater and UW Oshkosh.

UW Oshkosh (25-14, 13-11 WIAC) made it to the final of the WIAC Tournament as the third and final seed before falling to UW-Stevens Point. It was the Titans’ 13th WIAC Tournament berth in the 14 years of the event, and their seventh time in the final, but they have not won it since the first one held in 1998.

Twenty-fourth-year head coach Tom Lechnir, the WIAC’s all-time leader with 690 wins and owner of 12 conference titles, got his team out to a 13-2 start last year, but the Titans struggled to score runs at times. UW Oshkosh scored 5.5 runs per game, which included a five-game season-ending stretch when they were shut out twice and scored seven total runs. But the lineup also showed flashes of dominance with seven double-digit scoring outbursts in 2011. However, the 2012 offense will be without departing senior outfielder Nolan Fadness (.326 AVG, 44 R, 24 SB), a four-time All-WIAC selection. But Fadness was one of just three seniors on the 2011 roster.

Potential returning batters looking to boost production in spite of losing Fadness are junior first team All-WIAC second baseman Tyler Kamps (.325 AVG, 38 RBI, 15 2B) and honorable mention senior third baseman Kyle Van Abel (.333 AVG, 16 R). UW Oshkosh played small ball for most of the year, batting .296 with just four home runs and a .376 slugging percentage while leading the nation with 64 sacrifice bunts.

Pitching was the major strength for the Titans last season, and it figures to be in 2012 as well. The Titans held opponents to four runs or fewer 24 times in 2011, including 18 times in the season’s first 22 games. Senior-to-be Luke Westphal emerged as the Titans’ ace and was named the WIAC Pitcher of the Year and a second team D3baseball.com All-American. Westphal (7-0, 1.34 ERA, 60.1 IP, 64 K, .184 OBA) allowed one run in six of his eight starts and allowed just six extra-base hits all season.

UW Oshkosh loses first team All-WIAC starter Jeremy Rubens (3-2, 1.83 ERA, 6 GS, 4 CG) from the staff, but besides him the group that completed 17 games, held a 3.97 earned run average and limited opponents to a .263 batting average could return intact. The potential returning pitchers combined for 22 of UW Oshkosh’s 25 wins.

With Westphal a Titan and many other WIAC teams replacing long-time stars while they could be replacing as few as three, UW Oshkosh could be atop the standings for the first time in three years in 2012. The Titans begin their schedule, which includes a doubleheader against St. Thomas, March 12 against Hamline at the Metrodome. UW Oshkosh gets WIAC contender UW-Stevens Point at home for four games this year, but the Titans are on the road for the season series with UW-Whitewater and UW-La Crosse.

UW-La Crosse (24-15, 12-12 WIAC) is in a position to do what it hasn’t done since 1997 – win a WIAC title. For nearly a generation UW-La Crosse has looked up at the power trio of UW-Whitewater, UW-Stevens Point and UW Oshkosh in the WIAC standings. Where those other teams in the conference are replacing longtime stars, the Eagles return most of theirs from a club that missed the WIAC Tournament by one game. On the university’s chopping block in order to make budget just a few years ago, the Eagles are primed to soar past those not-so-forgotten times and into the news for results on the diamond.

UW-La Crosse needed to win, as it turned out, three of four games at UW-Whitewater in the closing series of the regular season to gain entry in the three-team WIAC Tournament. Those were long odds because Whitewater had lost just one game at home all year. The Eagles won just one of the four games but almost pulled out another, losing 1-0 in 13 innings on the last day of the season.

It may be a surprise if UW-La Crosse needs to win three games in the final series of 2012 to keep its season alive. The Eagles lose just two starters and return five All-WIAC players from a team that ranked second in the WIAC with a .313 batting average and struck out 7.7 batters per nine.

Eighth-year head coach Chris Schwarz loses just one starting position player, second baseman Matt Trocke (.295 AVG, 25 RBI), and one starting pitcher, Bryant Rude (4-4, 49.1 IP, 60 K). The low rate of turnover extends to the dugout where Schwarz even kept his coaching staff intact, increased pay for assistants while promoting Scott Gillitzer to assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator, and the athletic department added two full-time strength coaches. That’s miles away from the chopping-block, cost-cutting days of yore when a private fund-raising effort kept the program afloat. On the field UW-La Crosse returns a bounty of starting position players (eight) and pitchers (four of five starters) that has no equal in the WIAC.

Of the returning batters, two were All-WIAC: first team junior designated Adam Cordova (.313 AVG, 27 R, 22 RBI) and honorable mention junior outfielder Brooks Braga (.340 AVG, 8 HR, 13 SB). Also back are senior first baseman Jay Fanta (.358 AVG, 24 RBI) and sophomore outfielder Cole Cefalu (.340 AVG, 37 R). With a good season, Fanta could set the school records for at-bats, runs, hits, and runs batted in for a program that produced major leaguer Vinny Rottino. Junior college transfers from Madison College are projected to man shortstop and left field.

While the offense should be solid once again, the Eagles pitching staff could be the unit that propels the team to the postseason and receives the headlines. Four hard-throwing upperclassmen – all upper 80s to low 90s – are back from a team that led the conference with 101 backward K’s and held opponents to a .256 average. Seniors Garrett Scray (3-3, 2.44 ERA, 59 IP), Tim Larson (1-1, 2.60 ERA, .257 OBA), Zach Lauersdorf (4-3, 2.54 ERA, .207 OBA) and junior first team All-WIAC Tim Verthein (3-0, 2.86 ERA, .213 OBA) headline a staff that could be the best, top to bottom, in the WIAC. However, Larson’s numbers are from 2010 since he sat out 2011.

The schedule lines up in UW-La Crosse’s favor as well. Likely WIAC contenders UW-Whitewater and UW Oshkosh must travel to La Crosse for eight conference games among the three. The Eagles are not shying away from testing themselves either as they compiled one of the toughest schedules in the region with heavyweights St. Thomas, St. Scholastica and St. Olaf on the docket to go along with a March trip to Arizona. UW-La Crosse opens with St. Thomas at the Metrodome on March 5.

UW-Superior (14-25, 9-15 WIAC) continued its steady ascension to WIAC contention in 2011. Before sixth-year head coach Eddy Morgan took over, the Yellowjackets placed last in the conference 11 consecutive seasons. The climb has taken time – UW-Superior was in last place Morgan’s first three years – but it has been steady. The team has won 19 WIAC games over the past two seasons, which is more than Morgan’s predecessors had from 1996-2006 combined. With the Yellowjackets’ 8-5 record to close last year, including a doubleheader sweep over UW Oshkosh on the final day, UW-Superior is looking to climb higher in 2012.

UW-Superior also defeated UW-Stevens Point, Macalester, Hamline and Buena Vista along the way last year, but the Yellowjackets’ best winning streak topped out at two games. UW-Superior has run-ruled (up 10 runs after seven innings) WIAC teams six times since 1994. Five of them have come in the past three seasons, including two each the last two seasons. Further evidence of a program on the rise: the Yellowjackets run-ruled UW-Stevens Point in 2011 and UW-Whitewater in 2009.

The bad news is that there were seven seniors, including two of the three all-conference players, on the UW-Superior roster last year. Gone are honorable mention All-WIAC shortstop Rhett Williamson (.310 AVG, 29 R), honorable mention All-WIAC outfielder Mitch Loegering (.294 AVG, 27 RBI) and outfielder Mike Labelle, who led the team with 36 runs batted in. The seven seniors accounted for 136 starts in the lineup and 18 appearances on the mound for a team that scored 5.8 runs per game and sported a 6.79 earned run average.

The good news is that 19 players return from last season, including honorable mention All-WIAC senior designated hitter Shaun Marshall (.365 AVG, 22 R, 63 TB). In all, seven players return on offense. An outfielder is back after missing last season, and a freshman is projected to man first base. But Marshall was the only returning player to have more than 44 total bases last year.

The good news extends to the mound, where three of the Yellowjackets’ top five starting pitchers from 2011 will fill those roles again. Projected front-line starting pitcher Dan Genrich is also back after missing all of 2011, and a freshman is competing for a spot in the rotation. However, the projected rotation won only three games for UW-Superior last year.

Looking to continue its WIAC ascension, the Yellowjackets start 2012 at the Metrodome on Feb. 28 versus Macalester.

UW-Stout (12-28, 6-18 WIAC) named Toby Gardenhire its new head coach in January. Gardenhire had a seven-year playing career in the Minnesota Twins organization where he was also a hitting and fielding instructor with the Twins Training Academy from 2009-11. UW-Stout was searching for a new head coach after Seth Maier left his alma mater to take a position in the private sector in late December. Maier, a four-time All-WIAC player, was the head coach for two years and was a part of the Blue Devil program, which also will be without top assistant Ryan Levendoski, for 10 seasons as a player and coach. Gardenhire brought in former Southern Illinois pitcher Adam Curynski to work as an assistant coach with the pitchers. 

On the field the Blue Devils were already tasked with trying to replace four starting position players. Gone on offense are first team All-WIAC outfielder Brian Giebel (.359 AVG, 43 R, 11 SB) and three key bats – shortstop Jesse Brockman (.331 AVG, 28 R), designated hitter Greg Smolinski (.341 AVG, 24 RBI) and third baseman Brandon O’Connell (.327 AVG, 32 RBI) – who often batted leadoff through cleanup for a team that batted .307 and hit 22 home runs.

UW-Stout got out of the gates winless in the first five games and never got untracked. The Blue Devils didn’t win consecutive games against D-III teams all season and ended the year on an eight-game losing skid. The bats kept teams in many games – UW-Stout scored seven or more runs 15 times – but a WIAC-worst 6.93 earned run average made momentum elusive. Blue Devil pitchers ceded double-digit runs 14 times, and opponents batted .342.

The new Blue Devil coach will have a solid foundation to build upon with the offense, the team’s strength. Junior first team All-WIAC catcher Matt Guida (.382 AVG, 32 RBI, 15 2B) is the cornerstone of that foundation. Joining Guida as returnees to the field are senior honorable mention All-WIAC outfielder Jon Schoch (.318 AVG, 25 R), junior Ben Yaucher (.310 AVG, 18 R) and senior infielder Jake Duske (25 R, 21 RBI).

The pitching staff returns six players with a shot at a year of redemption. Senior Cory Heeden (2-4, 4.53 ERA, 53.2 IP) is back after leading in innings last season. Also back is senior reliever Chris Lammert (1-0, 3.82 ERA, 12 G), the sole staff member with an earned run average below 4. Rounding out the top returning pitchers are junior Carter Vogt (2-3, 4.14 ERA), junior Dan Britts (2-5, 6.75 ERA), junior Tyler Hamann (1-1, 4.80 ERA) and sophomore reliever John Ewald (1-2, 6.55 ERA).

If the Blue Devil pitchers can gain consistency, the offense will have a good chance of lifting the team from the WIAC basement. UW-Stout opens the year against Hamline on Feb. 27 before a mid-March trip to Arizona.

UW-Platteville (11-29, 6-18) was coming off of back-to-back 20-win seasons and a 2010 WIAC Tournament berth but last year fell to the conference cellar for the first time 1995. The Pioneers were in the conference mix until a 10-game WIAC losing streak in late April.

The weakness of sixth-year head coach Eric Frese’s club in 2011 was a lack of offensive production. UW-Platteville was last in the WIAC by a wide margin with a .247 batting average, .321 slugging percentage and 4.5 runs per game. On the other hand, the Pioneer pitching staff didn’t record a complete game while sporting a 6.89 earned run average and .322 opponents’ batting average.

Potential batters returning to UW-Platteville are honorable mention All-WIAC senior outfielders Trevor Kattre (.331 AVG, 24 R, 12 SB) and Levi Ney (28 R, 18 RBI). Potential Pioneers returning pitchers are junior starter Bill Oppriecht (3-5, 5.97 ERA, 57.1 IP) and senior reliever Grant Oldenburg (0-2, 5.80 ERA, 16 G).

The Pioneers get 2012 underway with a trip to Alabama in mid-February.