2014's Cinderella Story: The Racine Park Panthers
By Spencer Flaten, Lead writer
A team that wins only four games during the regular season isn’t supposed to make any noise in the playoffs. It should be swept aside in the postseason opener, a mere afterthought for its opponents.
Apparently, the 2014 Racine Park Panthers didn’t get the memo.
Despite posting a 4-20 record during the regular season and carrying the #12 seed into the postseason, the Panthers reached the sectional semifinals before falling in extra innings at the hands of Wilmot Union, the #3 ranked team in Wisconsin according to the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association.
Exactly as their record suggests, the Panthers had a rough season. Poor weather across the state, a change in head coaches, and a tough schedule made things very difficult for Park. As one might expect, the Panthers did not have very high hopes heading into the playoffs.
“My expectations were not really high about the postseason after having the season we had,” said Max Widmar, the ace of the team’s pitching staff. “I knew that we would put up a fight against Burlington [in the first round], but with the season we had I did not think that we would beat them.”
Even with low expectations, the game still needed to be played. The Panthers played like an almost unrecognizable team, snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat, toppling the Demons 8-5. Trailing 5-2 through 4 innings, Park pushed across 5 runs in the 5th to take a lead that they would hold on to until the final out of the game.
The win was certainly an upset, but upsets happen all the time in the WIAA playoffs. Surely, the naysayers said, the Panthers would lose to Westosha Central, the highly touted #4 seed in the sectional.
A trip to sectionals was not in the cards for the Falcons, however. Park defeated them 4-2 in the regional final, a historic turn of events. With the victory, the Panthers became just the 3rd #12 seed to advance to sectionals since the WIAA adopted the 12-seed format in 2010.
“We were shocking the state, we were the Cinderella story! It started to hit me that we had a good chance to make it to state after beating both Burlington and Westosha Central. Everything was going our way. As a team, we were hitting throughout the whole lineup. Defensively, there were no errors in either game,” Widmar said. “[We] kept on winning when everyone expected us to lose. We showed that anyone can win on any given day. Coach Dan Spranger believed in us and now, we believed in ourselves and worked as a team.”
A matchup with #3 ranked Wilmot Union awaited Park in the sectional semifinals. With the knowledge that they could beat anybody, the Panthers took the field feeling confident. Their performance did not disappoint.
Widmar took the mound for the Panthers, tasked with silencing Wilmot’s bats, which is easier said than done.
The first five innings of the game remained scoreless before Park plated a run in the top of the 6th to take a lead with only an inning and a half to go.
However, the lead would not last long. In the bottom of the frame, Wilmot utilized a triple and a sacrifice fly to level the score. Neither team scored in the 7th inning, and all of a sudden, the 12th-seeded Racine Park team took the 3rd best team in Wisconsin to extra innings.
The final 4 innings of the game were absolutely wild, especially in the eyes of Widmar.
“From the 7th inning on was the best part of the game. It was a grind through those innings. Wilmot had guys in scoring position in the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning with less than two outs and I got out of every single one. It was unbelievable,” he said.
With tension at its highest in the top of the 10th, Park stranded men on first and second to end the inning. In the bottom of the frame, Wilmot catcher Garrett Bogucki promptly hit a 2 run walk-off home run and ended Racine Park’s Cinderella run.
For the Panthers, it was a tough loss to stomach.
“Of course we were all emotional, losing in extra innings. For me, it was also my last high school game. The last game was definitely the best game of my high school career. We were proud of ourselves and our coaches for all we had accomplished together,” Widmar said.
Still, it is a run like this that makes baseball so entertaining. This rings especially true for Max and all those who were a part of it.
“The remarkable run with my team was amazing. We were living in the moment and never looking back…I would have to say that it was a time in my baseball career that I’ll never forget,” he said.
