Tremendous Pitching Leads A’s to 32-17 Record
Posted: August 24, 2011
A solid pitching staff led first year manager Shaun Wegner’s Sheboygan A’s to a 32-17 record that left them one game short of the Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League championship.
The A’s finished second in the Northeastern League, swept Manasha in the playoff semifinals and lost in the final game of the best of three series to Manitwooc by a 10-2 score. Manitowoc won the series opener, 6-3, and the A’s won the second game, 14-3, to set up the rubber game in Manitowoc.
The club finished 14-10 in the Wisconsin State League to tie for third place.
Lombard once again won the WSL with an 18-6 mark.
The A’s pitching staff combined for a 2.74 earned run average, despite losing four of their recruited pitchers to the Northwoods League.
Ben Stanczyk finished with a 6-0 record and a 1.90 earned run average. Eric Van Beck had a 1.56 earned run average, but hard luck in terms of unearend runs, gave him only a 2-4 record to show for it. Collin Weyer was 7-3 and 2.74, and Mitch Gardner 6-3 and 2.86.
Those and Jack Archie, who joined the club well into the season emerged as the top five in the rotation, with Max Kramsky and Jake Ristow getting spot starts. Archie was 3-0 with a 3.27 ERA and two saves, Kramsky 1-1 with a 3.22 ERA; and Ristow 3-1 with one save and a 3.38 ERA. Gardner led the club in innings pitched, 69.1, and Van Beck led in strikeouts, 51.
Veteran Tim Patzman and first year player Colin Willis were the only two hitters to finish over .300. Patzman came in at .313 with a team high 47 hits, 33 runs batted in, 17 doubles and four home runs.
Willis hit .304 with a team high 32 runs scored and 13 stolen bases.
Ryan Solberg hit .281 and Derek Peake .275 to post the top averages among other regular players.
Stanczyk hit .524, but in only 21 plate appearances, and Adam Wilson hit .298 in 50 appearances.
The club had a .262 team batting average and a .960 fielding average. Despite the fact that the team made errors at crucial times, yielding 46 unearned runs, the team fielding average is a club record, surpassing the .959 mark of 2008.
No other team or individual records were set.
The Sheboygan A's are members of the Wisconsin State League and Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League. The A's have helped develop more than 43 players that have reached professional baseball, including 2002 World Series Champion Jarrod Washburn (Anaheim Angels). All Sheboygan A's home games are played at Wildwood Baseball Park in Sheboygan. Connect with the A's on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
