Preble squeaks out 1-0 victory over West De Pere in dramatic fashion

GREEN BAY – With Mother Nature making many area baseball fields temporarily unavailable due to the recent snowmelt and torrential rain, the West De Pere and Green Bay Preble baseball teams saw a Fox River Classic Conference rival come to their aid on April 14. 

With Joannes Park on Green Bay’s east side too muddy and wet for the regularly scheduled game, Green Bay Southwest offered its turf to the two teams. 

Preble came away with a dramatic 1-0 victory over the Phantoms after centerfielder Dallas Rady made a diving catch deep in the gap to seal the victory. 

With two outs and two runners on in the Phantoms’ seventh inning, Jake Rodewald’s blast appeared to be heading to the right-centerfield gap, but Rady chased down the towering drive to send the Hornets home happy. 

“I saw the ball right off the bat,” the senior Rady said. “With the go-ahead runner on second base, it was either I catch the ball to end the game, or we were going into the bottom of the seventh. It was a nice ball to chase down. When I caught it, I was on the warning track, so it was close.”

Preble junior pitcher Will VanBoxel didn’t allow a hit until two outs in the sixth inning – that’s when the Phantoms strung together a pair of hits, putting runners on second and third before VanBoxel coaxed a ground ball to end the inning. 

The Hornets broke through for the only run of the game in the fourth inning when VanBoxel knocked in Harrison Selk with an RBI single. 

“I have to tip my hat to the boys – they played hard, and we had good pitching,” Preble Coach Clint Petasek said. “I’m very proud of Will on the mound, and we played good defense. West De Pere is a heck of a team, so that’s why we threw Will tonight.” 

Petasek said there wasn’t a thought of taking VanBoxel out of the game after the sixth inning. 

“Will is an old-school kid who’s hard-nosed and plays baseball the right way,” he said. “We take care of his arm – he threw 89 pitches tonight.”

The Hornets improved to 4-0, while the Phantoms dropped to 3-4 on the young season. 

Ethan Collar, Sammy Berg, Caleb Scheller and Logan Wierzba collected hits for WDP. 

In addition to VanBoxel, Marco Aregoni, Everett Sachs, Brady Perrizo and Selk had base knocks for Preble. 

Wierzba went five innings for the Phantoms, giving up only five hits while striking out five.