West Salem wins second state championship of 2017
Photo credit: Tracey Beckley
CLINTONVILLE – When 2016 began, West Salem’s Braxton Ghelfi was only concerned about winning one state title. Two? Not really on his mind.
“At the point in time, we knew we had the talent and experience to bring home a state title in the spring, and that’s what we set our goal as,” he said.
The vision started to change this week after West Salem Post 51 moved to 3-0 at the American Legion Class A state tournament.
“It never really set in that we could bring home two state titles in one year until we beat Prairie du Chien to become 3-0. That’s when we knew we could do it and become part of history in Wisconsin and in West Salem,” Ghelfi said.
West Salem completed the best prep baseball year in village history with a 10-3 win over Clintonville in the American Legion Class A state championship game on Sunday. It was West Salem’s second state championship this year.
In June, the Panthers won the first baseball state title in school history by beating Waupun in the WIAA Division 2 state championship game. In July, they won their first championship in the current Legion format.
“Our core group of guys has been playing together since we were in Little League. It’s more than just a team, it’s a brotherhood,” Ghelfi said. “Everyone on our lineup can get the job done at any given time in the game and our defense is very strong for a high school team. This allows our pitching staff to have confidence and know that they can put the ball over the plate and we will get the job done behind him.”
It wasn’t easy, as Sunday’s championship game went back and forth and was close throughout.
“Clintonville definitely gave us a run for our money in the first couple innings. They had the momentum for a bit and we were beating ourselves in the field,” Ghelfi said.
West Salem took the lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Trevor Kastenschmidt. Clintonville responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame to take the lead. Colton Kluth hit an RBI single to score the first run, and Logan Liesenfelder hit an RBI fielder’s choice to give the Diamond Cats a 2-1 lead.
Early on, Post 51 couldn’t avoid putting hard hit balls straight at the Diamond Cat fielders.
“I think we were finding the barrel very well, but just hitting right to them,” Ghelfi said.
The score at 2-1 until the top of the third, when West Salem surged back with three runs. Alex Jeranek hit a two RBI double to give Post 51 the lead, and Jake Whitbeck drove in another with an RBI single.
The Diamond Cats clawed back with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Jordan Koeppen hit a sacrifice fly to cut Post 51’s lead to 4-3.
West Salem pushed across a big insurance run in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI single by Jeranek. It perhaps gave Post 51 the spark it needed, because in the ensuing inning, they blew the contest wide open.
Post 51 scored five runs in the seventh to seal the state championship. Ryan Bierne opened the floodgates with an RBI single, and Kastenschmidt followed with a two RBI double. Hitting with an 8-3 lead, Alec Gorski drove in two with a single to make the score 10-3.
“We finally found the gaps late in the game and were able to finally break open the game in the seventh,” Ghelfi said.
Bierne pitched a complete game for West Salem to earn the win. He gave up two earned runs, struck out seven and walked two.
Jeranek finished 4-for-5 with three RBIs for West Salem (26-4), while Kastenschmidt was 3-for-4 and drove in three. Hunter Vollmer and Kyle Finger both had two hits for Clintonville.
Across the spring and summer seasons, this group of West Salem players went 50-8. Ghelfi said both state titles were distinct experiences.
“The stage for spring state is definitely a lot more intense,” he said. “But the feeling of bringing home the trophy to all of the people that have made our Legion team possible at Post 51 was definitely one to remember.”
They’ll have a chance to win some national hardware this week when they head to North Dakota along with Class AA champion Holmen to play in the Division 2 Central Plains Regional. A national-level title in addition to the two state championships would put this group of players in unprecedented territory in Wisconsin.
“That (Central Plains) title would really help put little West Salem on the map outside of Wisconsin,” Ghelfi said. “That would definitely be the way any high schoolers would want to end their career. I definitely believe we have a great chance at bringing home the title if we go down there and play our ball.”
