Published: May 23, 2015
Chasing a dream
Area players to join teams in top-tier Northwoods League
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Nate Krause, a graduate of Kettle Moraine Lutheran High
School, can see how close he is to possibly fulfilling his lifelong dream.
Last season, Krause played two weeks with the Duluth Huskies
of the Northwoods League. His teammate and fellow catcher was Mac James, who
had just finished his junior season at the University of Oklahoma.
Last summer, James was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the
sixth round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft (No. 187 overall).
“It feels cool to have been on the same team with him,
knowing I’m that close (to the major leagues),” Krause said.
Krause and Germantown graduate Brian Keller will play in the
Northwoods League this summer, hoping to take another step toward their dreams
of being professional baseball players.
'Hopefully I’ll get a chance,' Keller said.
Krause, a sophomore catcher at Winona State University in
Minnesota, is committed to play one month with the Eau Claire Express, maybe
more.
“It was the best baseball I’d ever played in my life,”
Krause said. “The competition level was something I never experienced before.”
The Express’ first game is Tuesday at the Thunder Bay Border
Cats in Canada.
Last season with Duluth, Krause hit .125 in eight games with
four RBIs.
Keller, a junior right-handed pitcher at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will play with the Lakeshore Chinooks in Mequon.
“That’ll be really fun,” he said.
Lakeshore will host Eau Claire on July 19 at Kapco Park in
Mequon.
The Chinooks’ first game is Tuesday at the Battle Creek
Bombers in Michigan.
Keller may or may not play the whole season. It’ll depend on
how his arm feels.
The Northwoods League is considered one of the top amateur
summer baseball leagues in the nation, alongside the Cape Cod League on the
East Coast.
The league’s mission is to introduce budding talent to life
as a professional baseball player.
That life includes playing baseball every day against some
of the top talent in the country, traveling on buses and essentially living on
their own. Each player has a host family he stays with.
Last season, Keller played one month with the La Crosse
Loggers.
“I had a blast doing it and I’m excited to do it again,”
Keller said.
With the Loggers, Keller pitched five games — all starts —
and went 2-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 34 1/3 innings pitched.
“I learned that professional baseball is extremely long and
playing everyday is a huge commitment, but a lot of fun,” he said.
The Northwoods League started in 1994 and has served as a
training ground for prospective professional baseball players since. Some of
the notable alumni include Andre Ethier, Curtis Granderson, Chris Sale, Max
Scherzer and Wisconsin native-Jordan Zimmermann.
It’s an unique opportunity for Keller for two reasons.
The first is that the Chinooks are close to his hometown.
“It’ll be a lot of fun,” he said. “My family will be able to
come and watch more often.”
The second is that the Chinooks are the defending league
champion.
Going into the Horizon League tournament, which started
Wednesday, Keller is 3-6 with a 3.44 ERA for the Panthers. He has 60 strikeouts
to 18 walks in 86 1/3 innings and has allowed 92 hits. This season in 13
outings, he’s averaged 6 2/3 innings pitched.
On Thursday, Keller pitched in the Panthers’ elimination
game of the Horizon League Tournament in Whiting, Indiana.
He pitched seven innings, allowed two hits, two runs, walked
two and struck out three. He got the victory against Valparaiso.
On March 4, Keller was the starting pitcher for UWM in an
exhibition game against the Milwaukee Brewers. He pitched one scoreless inning
and got Carlos Gomez to ground into a double play.
After that game, Keller said his goal this season was to
improve his slider as an out-pitch on two-strike counts.
Keller threw the slider that got Gomez to ground into the
double play.
He’s been happy with the progress and it gave him confidence
with four pitches: slider, fastball, curveball and changeup.
“It really tightened up,” Keller said of the slider. “You
could see it midway through the season. I’m trying to continue that.”
“It gives me more options,” he added about his confidence on
the mound to have a go-to pitch. “I can attack the zone with different
pitches.”
Krause was the Warriors’ everyday catcher as a freshman.
However, his offensive numbers weren’t good. He batted .215 with 16 RBIs and no
home runs.
This season, Krause has made progress, but nowhere near his
liking.
He batted .260 with 17 RBIs and hit three home runs.
“I need to prove I can hit top-notch pitching,” Krause said.
“I’ve struggled hitting in Winona the last two years.”
To help with that, Krause shortened his base in the batters
box.
Krause and Keller will look to enter next summer’s MLB
draft.
“It’s very reachable, but I still have work to do to get
there,” Krause said.
No comments:
Post a Comment