BASEBALL

Athens soars to Division 4 state baseball championship

Tim Johnson
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GRAND CHUTE – Klay Ellenbecker walked toward the back of the pitcher’s mound and took a few moments of quiet reflection and self-collection before he faced the first batter in the bottom of the seventh inning in his final start of the prep baseball season Thursday morning.

Athens High School's Jake Stange (10) raises the championship trophy with teammates following a 2-0 victory against Independence/Gilmanton High School during their WIAA Division 4 Spring Baseball Tournament final game Thursday, June 15, 2017, at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wis. 
Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

“I was just taking it all in,” the Bluejays junior said. “To need a few outs in the state finals, having pitched the whole game with my teammates behind me. It was pretty cool.”

He then went back to work and finished out a 2-0 win over Independence/Gilmanton in the WIAA Division 4 state baseball championship game at Fox Cities Stadium. He got Dayne Keenan to ground out to third on his 101st pitch to finish out the complete-game performance and give the Bluejays their first title since the program won the 1982 Class C championship.

Athens High School's Klay Ellenbecker celebrates a 2-0 victory against Independence/Gilmanton High School during their WIAA Division 4 Spring Baseball Tournament final game Thursday, June 15, 2017, at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.

“My team helped a lot, just really good defense,” Ellenbecker said. “I just reached back and fired the ball as hard as I could and it worked out good.”

Good as gold for Ellenbecker and his teammates who sported the championship medals and hoisted a state title trophy for the second time in the program's history.

"It feels amazing," said Ellenbecker, who struck out four and walked one. "The team worked hard all year to get to this point."

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The Bluejyays had a handful of the powder blue jerseys the 1982 Athens team wore hanging on the back wall of the their dugout on Thursday as they did during their semifinal win over Oakfield the day before. 

“(the 1982 squad) is an unbelievable team, legendary athletes,” said Coker, who went 2-for-2 ,and 6-for-6 overall in two state games to set a WIAA Division 4 record for hits in a tournament. “We can’t compete with that kind of people. But we are in the same sentence with them somehow, someway.”

Coker had two of the Bluejays' five hits against Indees' Keenan and Blane Olson in a fast-moving championship game which took just 1 hour, 46 minutes.

Members of this year’s Athens team had a pre-tournament barbecue with players form the ’82 squad earlier this week. Bluejays junior Marshall Westfall said he took away some words of advice from that coach of that past championship squad as well which helped him this week.

“Me, my dad (Rick) and my brother (Connor) went to see Mr. (Dan Bishop) and he said. ‘Just breathe. Just take it one play at a time. That’s all you can do,'” Westfall said.

The Bluejays (21-7) set the tone from the start against the Indees, who were making the first state title game appearance in the program's history

Ellenbecker was staked to an early lead as the Bluejays scored a pair of runs on a double by Seth Coker in the first inning and he made it hold up. The right hander scattered six hits in seven innings and the indees didn’t have a runner reach third base until the sixth inning.

Ellenbecker, who threw 1 ⅔ innings in the semifinal win, retired the first two batters in the seventh and the indees responded with two straight singles to put the winning run at the plate before Keenan grounded out to end the threat.

Athens coach Bill Coker paid a visit to the mound just once for a brief meeting in the sixth inning after the Indees put runners on first and second with one out.

“I just asked him how he was doing,” Coker said. “I said, ‘We can always bring in (Dakota Willemssen) if you need a break.’ He just said, ‘Nope, I’ve got it.' That’s just how he is.  He never gets wrapped up (in a situation).

“His emotions never go so high and never go so low. His presence out there is incredible,” Coker said. “He didn’t pitch that many innings this year but had some incredible experiences when he was out there. For him to go out there  and hold down that team to (six) hits is fantastic.”

Athens

200

000

0-2

5

1

Indep/Gil

000

000

0-0

6

0

WP-Klay Ellenbecker. LP-Dayne Keenan. 2B-Ath, Seth Coker.

Records: Athens 21-7, Independence/Gilmanton 23-6

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or twjohnson@gannett.com; on Twitter @timmyjo11