Denmark baseball is on the cusp of history entering the WIAA Division 2 state title game. St. Thomas More stands in its way.
GRAND CHUTE – Lucas Miller made the final start of his decorated baseball career at Denmark a memorable one.
The senior right-hander and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater recruit helped lead the Vikings to a 7-0 win over Jefferson on Wednesday in a WIAA Division 2 state semifinal at Fox Cities Stadium.
Denmark (29-2) is on the cusp of history entering the title game against St. Thomas More at 3 p.m. Thursday, hoping to become just the third team in state history to win three consecutive championships since the tournament started in 1948.
Miller did his part to give the Vikings a chance, earning the win against Jefferson after allowing no runs, six hits, one walk and striking out seven in 5⅔ innings before being pulled because of the WIAA’s 100-pitch rule.
He also earned the win in the title game last season against this same Jefferson program after recording the final two outs before Denmark won in walk-off fashion.
Denmark's offense finally breaks out
Miller has pitched more dominating games in his career, but he was able to keep the Eagles off the board by consistently working out of minor jams and a few dangerous ones.
Jefferson (24-7) left two on base in each of the first four innings, none more notable than in the third and fourth innings.
It put runners on second and third with one out in the third, but Miller struck out third baseman Caysen Miller on a 3-2 pitch and then got starting pitcher Tyler Schroedl to ground out to short to end the threat.
The Eagles also had runners on first and second with two outs in the fourth and star slugger Tyler Butina at the plate, the same Butina who launched a bomb against Denmark in the title game in 2022.
The Central Michigan recruit wasn’t as lucky this time, hitting a high pop-up to Miller on the mound on the first pitch of the at-bat.
“Obviously, not the goal to have guys on every single inning,” said Miller, whose team won its 18th straight game. “But just kind of listening to what Coach was telling me, just slowing the game down. Don’t get overworked. I know in years past, being younger, I would always try to work too quick. He did a great job of telling me to slow down. The bigger the situation, the slower you want to go.”
As for getting Butina out in one of the bigger moments of the game?
“Didn’t want to have him up with two guys on base, but me and my coach talked about how we were going to approach him the entire day,” Miller said. “We were going to attack outside. Luckily enough, I was able to throw a changeup slow enough where he popped up and we got out of the inning.”
That was the good news for the Vikings. The bad was they couldn’t muster a single hit against Schroedl the first four innings.
It forced a player meeting for Denmark after the opening frames.
The message was simple: The mentality at the plate had to be better. Everyone was swinging too early and lunging out, and they were reminded to stay back a bit and be patient.
What helped perhaps even more is that Jefferson took Schroedl out and went to Tyler Fredrick to start the fifth inning.
Fredrick has been one of the team’s aces this season, but anything and anybody probably looked better to Denmark at that point than Schroedl.
Six runs, six hits and three Jefferson errors later, a scoreless game had turned into a lopsided one.
Ethan Ovsak broke the no-hitter up with an RBI single that scored Nolan Perry after Perry opened the fifth with a walk.
Miller followed with an RBI double, Izaac Dittmer with an RBI single, Rheis Johnson with an RBI sacrifice fly and John Wertel with an RBI double before the final run came in when Jaycob Dittmer reached base on an error that allowed Wertel to score.
The Vikings added another run in the sixth after Ovsak opened the inning with a triple to right center and scored on a wild pitch.
It was that kind of day for Jefferson, which committed seven errors.
“We haven’t been hitting the ball the greatest for the last few weeks,” longtime Denmark coach Bill Miller said. “Just put the ball in play, put it on the ground and anything can happen. Striking out, popping up, isn’t going to put any pressure on the defense.
“All of a sudden, things just snowballed. We were fortunate to get six runs that inning. It was kind of typical. We don’t hit it for a while and try to swing things together.”
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One more to go
Denmark has had plenty of tough matchups this season, and there is a good chance St. Thomas More will be one of the most difficult.
The Cavaliers (27-2) are riding a 10-game winning streak, including a dominating 11-0 win over Altoona in a state semifinal that ended after five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.
Denmark is ranked No. 1 in the state in D2, while St. Thomas More is ranked No. 2.
The Vikings likely will turn to Ovsak to start the title game, with the junior right-hander Dittmer available out of the bullpen after recording the final four outs against Jefferson, which included three strikeouts.
Ovsak, a senior right-hander, started the state semifinal against Pewaukee last season and pitched 2⅓ innings in the championship game.
“Watching Thomas More the game before, they were hitting the heck out of the ball,” Bill Miller said. “We are going to be in for a fight tomorrow. They know that. The kids watched it.
“They have a heck of a ball team.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Denmark baseball tops Jefferson, moves to WIAA Division 2 title game
