Despite tough loss, West quiets critics

Date: July 20, 2013

Despite tough loss, West quiets critics


By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor

MEQUON — People just keep doubting West Bend West and its baseball program and the Spartans snicker when they prove those folks wrong. The doubters were fooled once again by the often-fundamentally sound Spartans in Friday’s WIAA state semifinal against Sheboygan Falls and in the final against New Berlin West, down five runs in the sixth.
All year, the Spartans have heard they’re not good. They didn’t stand a chance against the tough North Shore Conference. The Spartans lacked powerful hitting or standout pitchers.
A couple times, they were right as West started 5-4 and had a lateseason three-game losing streak. West wasn’t going to quit and it was ready to show up the doubters.
Faced with the season on the brink, West’s Jake Kopp got red-hot Nate Heili to ground out to end the game as the Falcons had the goahead run on second base in the top of the seventh inning.
With first base open and two outs and the Falcons’ best hitter at the plate, there was a belief West coach Bill Albrecht and Kopp would intentionally walk Heili to load the bases, creating a force-out situation at any base.
West hasn’t listened to any naysayers up to this point. Why now?
Kopp wanted the ball and wanted to get Heili. Albrecht wanted Kopp to do it and had faith he could do it.
Kopp and a remarkable defensive play took care of the job and put West to within one game of a state championship. Not bad for a bunch of nobodys.
“I’m sure a lot of people thought we should’ve walked him,” Albrecht said.
“But if I’ve got Jake Kopp going up against anybody, I’ve got full confidence in (Kopp). I’ll take him against anybody.”
In the preseason, West was picked toward the bottom of the North Shore.
Who could blame the doubters? West went into the season without a Daily News All-Area or even an All-North Shore Conference pick from the 2012 season. So, in other words, this team was young, lacked experience.
The Spartans weren’t a sexy pick.
But the way they play baseball isn’t sexy, either. It’s just fundamental.
Instead of the long ball, West plays small ball — bunting runners into scoring position, attempting suicide squeezes. And most of the time, the Spartans are successful.
Their first run in Friday’s semifinal was on a suicide squeeze.
Anybody who’s ever watched West baseball, especially in the last two years as the powerful bats of Shane Hayes, Eric DuCharme and Dylan Hinckley have graduated, knows small ball is coming. But nobody ever seems to be able to stop it. Why? Good coaching of a team that refuses to quit, understands how to win and plays with a chip on its shoulder. So you want to doubt the Spartans? OK.
Last year, the Spartans were given little chance to do anything. What they did in the end was win 20 games and finish second in the North Shore.
Going into this year was a bit of a different story. There was even less experience and maybe even less talent.
You can bet Albrecht will take a less talented team over one that is maybe more talented, but not as easy to coach.
“We haven’t done things pretty all year, but we got the job done,” he said.
Albrecht, the 2007 state coach of the year, put together one of his best coaching jobs this season and added to his future Hall of Fame resume with the job he did this season. He took a bunch of “nobodys” and turned them into a team that played for a state championship when nobody outside of the West program gave them a chance.
There was even some belief West was on the decline. Ha!
Albrecht challenged his six seniors and his young pitching staff to carry this team and they gladly accepted it.
They came to practice ready to prove naysayers wrong.
“This group, they just never give up,” said Albrecht, who joined the 300win club this season. “They just keep playing.”