April 15, 2021 at 8:10 a.m.
Pitchers and catchers gearing up for baseball season
Pitchers and catchers gearing up for baseball season
When it comes to high school baseball in the Northwoods, Mother Nature won the race this year. A combination of an early thaw and a late start to the baseball season due to the COVID-19 pandemic means the snow, for once, has entirely melted away. Regardless, pitchers and catchers are back, and the start of the baseball season is right around the corner.
This week is the unofficial start of the high school baseball campaign, with pitcher- and catcher-specific training.
It's the fourth year that pitcher and catcher training has been allowed by the WIAA in the week leading up to the first official practice of the spring. The WIAA places several limits on what can and cannot be covered, how many practices there can be and how long each practice can last. Also, the WIAA states the program is considered out of season, therefore participation is voluntary.
Still, for the Rhinelander High School baseball team, a vast majority of the players were in attendance, getting their arms ready to go. The week is, in some ways, a continuation of the contact days the team had over the past few weeks.
"It's been kind of nice that we had the three weeks before (of contact), so we were able to get a jump start on pitchers and catchers," Hodag baseball coach Joe Waksmonski said. "Really, it was kind of reviewing what we were teaching as far as our drill series, how we play catch and things like that. Then, we were able to finish off with some bullpens."
Though the weather was nice last week, which allowed the team to get out to Stafford Field for some practices, it wouldn't be April in Wisconsin without Mother Nature mixing in a curveball. Rain on Monday and cold temperatures on Tuesday forced the team indoors. Luckily, the weather was only a minor inconvenience thanks to the Hodag Dome.
"It probably saves us the week because of the way the weather is," Waksmonski said. "It's very nice to come in here. We can still get all of our work in. What's really nice about being in here is we have the yard markers, so we're able to actually walk off some distances and be able to throw with our different drills and things like that."
It's just another example of how Waksmonski feels the newly-constructed dome is already paying dividends for his team. It hosted the majority of the team's voluntary contact days, as well as open gyms before that.
"It's going to be said a lot this year, with the dome, our guys were able to get their arms in shape," he said. "The guys that took advantage of it, you're going to see right off the bat the velocity is already there for there. We don't really have to wait for that to come around this year."
In a way, the extra week of pitcher and catcher training is doubly important this year. Given that it's been two years since most teams have played high school baseball, there are not many battery combinations across the state that have previous varsity experience.
Rhinelander, for instance, has only one pitcher on the roster who logged any varsity innings in 2019 in senior Isaac Bixby. Though senior Walker Hartman was the team's everyday catcher two years ago as a sophomore, if or when he plays this year is still up in the air, following a knee injury suffered during the football season.
Still, Waksmonski figures his team will have plenty of upperclassman arms this spring. What they lack in varsity experience he hopes they will make up for in maturity.
"I don't look at them as being young. A lot of our guys, a lot of our seniors that are throwing right now, they threw last year," he said. "Obviously, it wasn't a true season and in the Wednesday night scrimmages (organized by kids last summer), you don't get a true feel of the game, but all those guys just kept working hard through the offseason. They feel like they have that veteran feel to them ... A lot of these kids, they've played two or three years of varsity sports already. As far as mentally, they're going to be able to handle it."
The official start of practice for the Hodag baseball team is this coming Monday. It will be a short run up to the season for the squad as its set to scrimmage Stratford next Saturday at Stafford Field before kicking off competition April 27 at Lakeland.
"We'll do our traditional combine day the first day and then Day 2 - provided the weather will be nice -my hope is to have our pitchers throwing live to hitters down at Stafford Field," Waksmonski said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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