est pitch. Like said every ….

est pitch. Like said every piece of junk I could possibly think of. It barely missed high. Thank God (the batter) didn’t swing at it.”

Alexander gave up one base hit in his outing. He worked with all-state catcher Trett Joles of Boyceville. He entered with a 3-0 lead and the West opened the game up with a five-run top of the seventh. Knowing what was behind him for defense, Alexander said he knew the best approach was to let those guys do the work.

“In the first inning I pitched, the first out I got was a groundout where the second baseman was running to his left and made a spinning throw to first and got him out,” he said. “The second out in that inning was a pop-up and the first baseman climbs the wall to bring it back in. The third was just a routine groundout. But with some of those arms on the infield and in the outfield, the defense was just incredible.”

After going hitless in four at-bats in the first two games, Alexander went two for two in the 10-3 win over the South with a roller that found its way to the outfield and a liner to center.

“Against 90 mph I was pretty proud of myself,” he said.

Ryan Brookman of Tomah, Justin Rayburn of Pittsville and Matt Vold of St. Croix Falls were the team’s coaches.

Listed as pitchers on the West roster were Alexander, Anderson, Lapic, Jared Lessman of St. Croix Falls, Walker Retz of Division 4 state champion Boyceville and Kenny Schultz of Stevens Point.

Joles and Menomonie’s Brigs Richartz were listed as catchers. The infielders were Bonneville, Jared Everson of La Crosse Aquinas, Matt Heinrich of Wausau East, Owen Latendresse of D.C. Everest, Evan Long of Tomah and Brock Warren of Marathon.

Tanner Marsh of Mondovi, Ethan Rothbauer of Bloomer, Brett Stuessel of Sparta and Nick Urban of Marshfield were outfielders.

“(Lessman) led the state in strikeouts,” Alexander said. “I think I had 70 some, which I thought was pretty good. I asked him how many strikeouts did you have? He goes 158. I didn’t believe it. I had to look it up on my phone. That was just insane. When he pitched for us, he threw four innings and I think he ended up with 10 strikeouts. That’s saying something when you’re facing those kinds of hitters.”

For a player to be selected, he must first be nominated by his high school head coach, who in Alexander’s case is Justin Hraby. The coach also must be a coaches association member. From there, the teams are assembled by their respective district coordinators.

“A huge thanks goes to coach Hraby for nominating me,” said Alexander, who plans to attend Northcentral Technical College in the fall to start pursuing a degree in marketing. “That was awesome.”