GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – For the first time in program history the De Pere baseball team is a state champion.
The Redbirds played in their first state title game since 1986 on Thursday night and played like a champion. The Redbirds took advantage of three errors in the first two innings by Sun Prairie East, turned them into four runs and then held on to beat the Cardinals 5-1 in the Division 1 state title game at Fox Cities Stadium.
“Been waiting my whole life for this,” coach Bob Van Rens said. “Grew up in De Pere so obviously this means the world I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet.
“So proud of our kids, so happy for our kids that they will be remembered forever as our first state champions in baseball,. I cannot be more proud of a group of kids that we have right now.”
“Means the world just to do it with the guys I have been with since day one,” senior Axel Donaldson said. “Means the world to me, couldn’t have wrote a better script than this.”
Donaldson was part of the script early, for sure. He reached base on an error in the first inning and came around to score. Then in the second inning, he singled, stole a base and scored again as the No. 1-seeded Redbirds (27-3) scored three second-inning runs thanks to two more errors.
That was enough for southpaw Landon Raygo, who pitched a complete game, allowing four hits, while striking out seven and walking four. For the third state tournament game in a row De Pere held its opponent to one or fewer runs.
“I think Landon was trying to outduel his good buddy Axel,” Van Rens said about Donaldson, who was the winning pitcher in the state semifinal. “Axel did a really good job (Wednesday) and I just think Landon wanted to match that.
“I really didn’t want to take him out of the game, I really wanted him to finish that game. I think he was right at 100 (pitches) there at the end so that was going to be his last batter, so we knew he had to get that last one and he did so really happy for Landon.”
“I was doing really good just knowing that our defense, which I feel is best in the state, just throw strikes and they will make the plays,” Raygo said.
De Pere entered the season ranked No. 1 in the state and was No. 2 after the regular season was complete. Yet was seeded No. 1 for the state tournament. Meanwhile, Sun Prairie was actually ranked No. 1 entering the postseason, but seeded No. 3 in the state tournament.
Maybe confusing, so the teams settled the debate as to which team was the real No. 1 on Thursday and there was no confusion after the game — De Pere.
“It means so much to be able to be the first team to do this in school history and put our names into the hall of fame,” Raygo said. “It’s just amazing.”
“We knew we were No. 1 coming in and we kind of turned that around,” Van Rens said. “Target’s not on our back, we are going to go after everyone else.
“I give my kids a lot of credit because that’s not an easy thing seeing yourself as No. 1, knowing that everyone is coming after you. So to still do what we just did all the credit to the kids.”
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