Ozaukee baseball team got going late in season

The Ozaukee High School baseball team came out ahead in nearly every stat in its regional playoff game last month.

Just not the one that moves teams to the next round: the scoreboard.

The No. 9-seeded Warriors had more hits, extra  base hits and fewer errors and strikeouts.

But the No 8-seeded Tri-County Penguins managed to pull out a 5-3 victory on May 28.

“All the stats were pretty much in our favor,” coach Steve Kowalkowski said.

The Warriors had eight hits to the Penguins’ seven and two extra base hits to the Penguins’ one. Ozaukee struck out five times to the Penguins’ seven and didn’t commit an error while the Penguins made one.

The Warriors, however, stranded eight runners while the Penguins only left one on the bases.

“We were getting a little aggressive at times. We left a couple of runs on them,” Kowalkowski said.

Senior Mason Schroeder allowed five runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out seven in six innings.

“Mason pitched an insane game. It was a great pitching battle,” Kowalkowski said.

Ozaukee scored two runs in the second inning and one in the fourth.

Carter Szydel, Kyle Liermann and Jameson Morgan each had a hit and an RBI. Schroeder had two hits, including a double, and scored a run. Aiden Acevedo had a double and scored a run. Liermann scored a run. Colter Zimdars and Jackson Szydel each had a hit.

The Penguins scored one in the first and two each in the third and fourth innings.

The team traveled for more than two hours to the game in Plainfield.

“Just south of Stevens Point for a regional,” Kowalkowski said.

The scenario turned out well. The team stopped for lunch before arriving at the field.

“Kids were into it. It worked out great. We had a full pregame, almost like we were at home,” Kowalkowski said.

Dane Zimdars traveled separately since he came from work and arrived at the start of the game.

The Warriors finished 3-9 in the Big East Conference South Division and 5-19 overall. They started 0-13 before winning five of their last 11.

“You hate to see them sad at the end but you can see what it meant to them,” Kowalkowski said of the season’s close.

Kowalkowski praised his seniors, Dane Zimdars, Dylan Budzisz, Jackson Szydel, Charlie Steinert, Nolan Aberle, Schroeder and Brett Paulus.

“They did a great job,” he said, lauding them for handling the distractions of graduation and being out of school early.

Kowalkowski said he will miss Schroeder and Zimdars, the team’s top pitchers, but the sophomore class stepped up, as well as a pair of juniors.

Larger classes are coming up.

“The future is looking good,” Kowalkowski said.