Waukon baseball team plays to 12-17 season with senior-laden team

The Waukon baseball team played its way to the most wins in a single regular season since the summer of 2011, compiling an overall record of 12-17. But with a majority of this season’s losses coming during a 4-14 Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) campaign, the Indians still found themselves looking up at the remaining six teams in the final NEIC standings.
“Our challenge will always be the competitiveness of our schedule and league,” Waukon baseball coach Jerry Keenan said. “It is a solid league from top to bottom and we are facing a good opponent every time we take the field. But facing competition like that will make us better and we will continue to work hard and be a challenge for them as well.”
The 8-3 record the Indians compiled against non-conference opponents this season featured a narrow loss to intra-county foe Kee avenged multiple times later in the season and a pair of losses to teams ranked within the top 10 of their respective classes. In fact, more than half of this season’s losses came to teams regarded as one of the best 10 teams in their classifications, including a three-game sweep suffered at the hands of Class 2A second-rated Waverly-Shell Rock, a team the Indians held an 11-6 lead on midway through an early June contest and that most recently played itself to a Class 3A State Tournament Championship this past week.
Just as that early-season lead over Waverly-Shell Rock may indicate, Coach Keenan noted that there were signs throughout the season that this year’s team could play the game well enough to contend with anyone. “Although the record isn’t probably where we would have liked it to be, we played a much better game this season,” he said. “Our kids played hard and had some of the better games that we have had in a while. There was a stretch in late June/early July that we held our opponents scoreless for 17 innings and only committed one error. That is great team defensive baseball with great pitching. We played good, but I tell the guys that ‘the greatest reward for something done well is the ability to do it better.’ We have to continue to work at getting better every time we participate, whether that be in practice or in a game.”
Coach Keenan also sees a second-place finish at his own team’s annual Jeff Houg Tournament as providing another of this season’s bright spots. “Another highlight was the Jeff Houg Tournament,” he explained. “We played a thrilling game with Kee High and one of our better overall games against (Class 2A fifth-rated) South Winneshiek in the championship game. The whole tournament featured great competition with two highly-ranked Class 2A teams in South Winneshiek and (fourth-rated) Waterloo Columbus.”
But the greatest highlight of this 2015 campaign came in the Tribe’s final home stand in early July against Oelwein. “One of the best highlights of the season was on our Senior Night,” Coach Keenan relayed. “Senior Landon Sivesind was locked in a pitcher’s duel with the young man from Oelwein; both had no-hitters going into the seventh inning. Landon got through the top half of the seventh. In the bottom, we broke up their no-hitter, and with one out (senior) Jake Ronan stepped up and hit a two-run home run to left field (his first career home run) to win the game. I’m not sure that you can ask for a better team performance than that.”
Much like the team that last posted a 12-win regular season in 2011, this year’s squad was also led by a large group of seniors, as Adam Benzing, Sully Bucheit, Michael Howe, Marshall Lyons, Jake Ronan, Landon Sivesind and Brock Waters each wrapped up their high school careers with completion of this season.
“This was an outstanding group of young men,” Coach Keenan shared. “They have logged a lot of innings in their career and their experience and leadership will be missed. Many of them have started on a regular basis since they were sophomores. They are a great group of young people on and off the field and I wish them the best in their future. It has been a privilege to work with these young men for the last four seasons, including one as their eighth/ninth grade coach.”
As one might expect with such a large veteran group, a great deal of statistical leadership will depart from this season’s squad, including the top five batting averages and top-two efforts in runs scored, runs batted in and pitching efforts. Ronan paced this year’s squad with 31 runs batted in and 34 hits within a team-high batting average of .386, with Benzing’s 26 runs scored edging out Ronan for the team lead by a single run. Bucheit and Sivesind posted team-leading pitching numbers of 37 and 36 strikeouts, respectively, earned run averages (ERAs) of 4.76 and 4.17, respectively, and 50 and 45-1/3 innings pitched, respectively, as well.
Ronan’s efforts resulted in him being named to the Class 3A Northeast All-District Second Team as a utility player. He and junior Peyton Hesse were also each named to the Northeast Iowa Conference All-Conference Second Team. For his combined efforts on the field and in the classroom, Sivesind was selected to the Class 3A Academic All-State Second Team.
Graduation of that large senior contingency will obviously leave some considerable holes in the Indian line-up next season, but will also provide abundant opportunity for future players willing to put in the time and effort prior to the start of the 2016 season. “With a lot of experienced players graduating, we will have a lot of opportunities for players next season,” Coach Keenan said. “It is important that they participate in our open gyms in the winter/spring to work on pitching. We cannot wait until the first Monday in May to begin throwing a baseball. Our open gyms provide a great opportunity to work on mechanics and gain arm strength and to help them develop as a pitcher. I also like to see the guys involved in other sports. It is important for them to be a well-rounded athlete and I wish them the best of luck in their other sports and activities. We will have some positions to fill for next season, but it will be fun to watch the guys step up and work hard to meet the challenge.”