Baseball teams turn the corner

New Port Washington High School baseball coach Brett Sweger badly wanted his team to taste victory and start to turn around the program.

The Pirates got it in a 13-7 road drubbing of Slinger on May 5.

“We just killed them. We went wire to wire. I was hoping we could get over the mental hurdle,” Sweger said.

He told the Pirates the same thing he said when he helped turn around regular doormat Beloit Memorial.

“It’s kind of fun the first year of a rebuild because there aren’t targets on our backs. We’re not striking fear in anyone,” he said.

Port lost to Nicolet, 9-8, on Friday, but bounced back on Saturday against state-ranked Kettle Moraine Lutheran.

Port took a 4-1 lead before a misplayed fly ball in the outfield let KML get back in the game and eventually take the lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Port got a couple of guys on base and senior Joe Yandry, who Sweger said doesn’t have any bad at-bats, came up with two outs and his team down, 5-4.

“Yandry came up and had a competitive at-bat,” Sweger said.  “He laced a ball into center field and we won.”

The Pirates went ballistic.

“To see the dugout explode like that, to go pick up Yandry, solidifies what we’re doing,” Sweger, who runs college-level practices that give each player 200 at-bats and 200 defensive reps, said.

“As an ultra competitor, I see what the ability is here. It’s there. It’s in them. It’s not impossible to pull it out of them.”

The victory was even bigger in that KML is in the Pirates’ sectional. The two teams may face off again in the postseason.

It was also a milestone.

“You could see the belief in other staff members. They can’t remember last time we beat somebody ranked in state,” Sweger said.

“We’re trending in the right direction and doing a lot of things right. I definitely see the progress.”

Port couldn’t keep the momentum going and lost at West Bend West on Monday, 11-2.

The Pirates (2-5) were to play Cedarburg on Wednesday, at Grafton at 5 p.m. Friday, at home against Homestead at 5 p.m. Monday, May 17, and against West Bend East at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 8.

Grafton going through a roller coaster

Grafton went 3-2 from May 3 to 10.

The Black Hawks lost, 10-7, to Cedarburg in a game that was delayed on May 3 due to rain with the Hawks up, 7-6, before it was finished days later.

Jack Sommers had a triple and Hunter Schmitt had a double.

Caiden Treske pitched six innings and took the loss.

The Bulldogs scored four runs in the sixth inning to pull out the victory.

The Hawks picked up their first win on May 5 against West Bend East, 7-5.

Schmitt went 3-for-3 with two RBI and Carson Faust went 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI.

Schmitt, who will play at the University of Oklahoma next season, pitched 5-1/3 innings and struck out 11 while walking four to earn the win. Josh Brace pitched 1-1/3 innings and Colin Indermuehle pitched one third of an inning.

The Hawks stayed hot at Homestead on Friday, winning 15-1. Schmitt went 4-for-4 with six RBI and scored two runs. Nathan Woolf went 3-for-4 with two RBI and scored two runs.

Sommers went the distance, allowing one earned run, three hits and two walks while whiffing three in five innings.

On Saturday, the Hawks scored two runs in the fifth inning to beat St. Francis, 4-3.

Brace pitched three innings and earned the win. Kyle Jiracek pitched four.

Indermuehle and Mason Lempke each went 2-for-3. Woolf had a hit and two RBI, and Lempke had one RBI.

On Monday, the Hawks hung with one of the favorites to win the North Shore Conference, Whitefish Bay, until the Blue Dukes put up seven runs in the sixth inning on their way to a 13-3 win.

Woolf went 2-for-3 and Schmitt, Indermuehle, Nathan Schoessow and Maddox Durst each had one hit. Indermuehle and Schoessow each scored a run. Durst and Schmitt each had an RBI.

The Hawks (3-6) were to play at Hartford on Wednesday, host Port Washington on Friday, play at Slinger on Monday, May 18, at Cedarburg on Tuesday, May 19, and host Nicolet on Wednesday, May 20.