SHOWED HE BELONGED
Alexander does well during All-Star weekend
Competing in an all-star setting can often cause players to try to do too much to prove they belong.
After seeing the talent he was surrounded by during last weekend’s Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Classic, Medford’s Spike Alexander said he quickly realized there was no point in trying to overdo it, especially in his three innings on the mound.
“I found out how good I really wasn’t,” joked Alexander, who fared quite well in three games with the West All-Star team that went 2-0-1 in the round-robin competition held Friday and Saturday at EJ Schneider Field in Oshkosh. “The competition was definitely the best I’ve ever faced as a baseball player. It was insane. Every kid on our team besides me is going off to play college baseball. A bunch of guys have full rides to play at D-I schools. It was just cool playing with that.”
Playing time was evenly split on the 18-man West roster, so each participant played in half of each game. Alexander played in leftfield most of the time, but threw three scoreless innings in the West’s 8-0 win over the North on Saturday. He also went two for six overall at the plate, collecting two hits in the team’s final game, a 10-3 win over the South.
The West opened play Friday with a nine-inning, 7-7 tie with the East All-Stars. For the first time in the 37-year history of the all-star games, both Friday night games went to extra innings. The North beat the South 4-2 in eight innings in the opener. In game two, the teams went to extras with the game tied at 3-3. The East scored four runs in the top of the eighth and the West answered with four in its half, keyed by a two-run double by Dylan Lapic of La Crosse Central and a tying single with the bases loaded and one out by Ashland’s Jackson Bonneville. The West left the bases loaded and the game was called after no one scored in the ninth.
Alexander had a quiet night, but said he got a quick idea for how strong the talent was when Whitnall’s Ryan Kendziorski hit an early line drive. Alexander said he made a strong throw to keep Kendziorski to a double.
“Our first pitcher in our first game (Hudson’s Owen Anderson) was just throwing absolute gas,” Alexander said. “One of the guys squared it up and it maybe went 20 feet in the air but it just went screaming over my head to the wall.”
Alexander, a left-hander, got his chance to pitch at the end of the team’s shutout win over the North. That’s when Alexander was told by West team coordinator Mark Fuller of Cumberland that he may have made some allstar history.
“I was not throwing any hard stuff to those hitters,” Alexander said. “I’ve been told I’m a weird pitcher on the mound already and I multiplied the weirdness by about five. I was throwing every piece of junk I could possibly come up with.
“The guy who organizes the whole thing (Fuller) was umpiring behind the plate when I pitched and he told me I set a high school all-star game record for slowest pitch,” Alexander added. “I threw up eephus pitch. He told me 38 mph. That set the record for slowest 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.”
