Winning championships never grows old but for the seniors on this year’s Warhawk baseball team but winning a first WIAC Tournament title was even more special.
“There is nothing better than this right now and it makes it even better that it was against Point,” senior second baseman, Ben Kuhlmann told Voices Eye on Baseball Blog following his teams WIAC Conference Tournament Title.
The senior out of Minneapolis, Minnesota Southwest High School has started 115 consecutive games for the Warhawks. Despite losing three of five games to the Pointers going into Saturday’s action, Kuhlmann said he and his teammates knew they had what it would take to win two games.
“We had all the confidence in the world. We just had to go out and do it,” Kuhlmann said.
The weekend was even more special for centerfielder Jordan Stine. The senior from Merrill received his degree Friday afternoon in special ceremonies on the field at James B. Miller Stadium between games.
Which was more special for Jordan – getting his diploma or winning the undisputed WIAC Championship as a senior?
“They were equally exciting because both of them took five years for me to accomplish,” Stine said following Saturday’s title win. “This is the first time in my career that we have felt good leaving the conference tournament.”
This was the fifth time in six years that Steven Point and Whitewater faced off in the WIAC conference championship game. The Warhawks have captured the regular season conference title six of the last seven years however had not won the WIAC Tournament Championship since 2004.
In a side-note, UW-Whitewater won the 2005 NCAA Division III National Championship and finished third in 2008 despite NOT winning the conferences’ automatic bid into the tournament.
Whitewater will open its NCAA tournament play on Wednesday in the Division III Midwest Regional to be hosted by UW-Whitewater at the Prucha Field at James B. Miller Baseball Complex. Tournament pairings will be announced on Monday.
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