Athens baseball ready to compete

Young team will battle in all its games this year

By Casey Krautkramer

It was a chilly baseball game on Monday night at Tucker Westfall Field in Athens. Fans snuggled up in layers of clothes and blankets watching the Athens varsity squad play against Rib Lake in a key Marawood North Conference showdown. Temperatures hovered around the middle 30s on Monday afternoon and night, making it feel more like fall football weather. Athens got off to a chilly start and found itself down 2-0 to Rib Lake. That was until the fifth inning, when the Bluejays chased the Redmen’s starting pitcher out of the game. Athens plated three runs in that pivotal fifth inning, mainly because of the Rib Lake pitcher’s control issues but the Bluejays were still patient at the plate.

Rib Lake ended up coming back for a 5-4 win to hand Athens its first loss this season. It’s still early in the season, however, as there’s plenty more baseball to be played for the Bluejays to continue to improve and pull out a close game like what occurred on Monday night. Snowy weather forced cancellation of the second game that was supposed to be played between the Bluejays and the Redmen on Monday night in Athens.

Athens has a 2-1 record in the Marawood North Conference and is 3-1 overall this season. Athens has tough upcoming games against Abby/Colby, which is the favorite again to win the conference title this season. Abby/ Colby has a 5-0 record in the Marawood North so far this spring.

Todd Diethelm is in the midst of his fifth season as Athens varsity baseball head coach. His assistant coaches are Jeramie Penney, Aaron Doll and Dale Westfall. Diethelm outlines the strategy for Athens to compete with Abby/ Colby and Rib Lake for the Marawood North Conference championship this season.

“I wouldn’t say we won’t compete with the top teams in the conference, but for that to happen we need to improve daily,” Diethelm said. “We have some athletic potential but we really need to work on fundamentals and lean how to play the game correctly. We talk daily about game situations and what we can do to help our team win baseball games. It starts with discipline and not trying to be a hero every time an opportunity comes your way. I told my team we want to be competitive every game and the rest will take care of itself.”

The team’s top returning varsity players this season are seniors Kyler Ellenbecker and Nathan Wolf who both pitch and play outfield; junior Hunter Haehlke who is a pitcher and outfielder; junior Ty Johnson who is a pitcher, infielder and outfielder; sophomore Nick Pittman who is a pitcher and infielder; junior Adam Belter who is an infielder and catcher and junior catcher Logan Ebben.

Athens’ top newcomers to this spring’s varsity squad are sophomore Kaden Auner who is an infielder and outfielder; sophomore Brayden Frahmann who is a pitcher, infielder and outfielder; freshman Kamden Zarnke who is a pitcher, infielder and catcher and freshman Eli Paul who is a pitcher and outfielder.

The Bluejays lost four starting players from last year’s team and they don’t have an ace pitcher this season.

“We don’t have a so called ace but we have a number of pitchers,” Diethelm said. “Kyler Ellenbecker, Nick Pittman, Hunter Haehlke, Ty Johnson and Nathan Wolf will get most of the varsity innings this season.”