2014 Season Recap: Lombard Wins 11th Straight

The Lombard Orioles did it again. The Orioles racked up a 21-3 record to win their 11^th straight Wisconsin State Baseball League championship. This year, skipper Jeff Vukovich’s club finished 4½ games ahead of the Sheboygan A’s.

The Kenosha Kings were third, 6½ back. Oshkosh, Eau Claire and Addison rounded out the second division.

As befits a champion, Lombard led in all statistical categories. The Orioles hit .293 to .291 for Sheboygan, had a 2.66 team earned run average to a distant 3.36 for runner-up Sheboygan and had a .972 team fielding average to .963 for second place Eau Claire.

Leading the way for skipper Jeff Vukovich’s Orioles was Blake Alexander. Alexander, who plays his college ball at Elgin Jr. College, emerged as the league’s only .400 hitter with a robust .444 average. He also led the other batting “percentages”: on base .512 and slugging .664. He also led the hits, home runs and total bases and tied for the lead in runs scored.

Further, playing the difficult third base position, Alexander committed only one error and came in with a .986 fielding percentage.

Eau Claire’s Brian Burman, who led the league in runs batted in, was the runner up to Alexander with a .368 average, a full .072 behind the hitting champion. Lombard’s Keith Browning led in stolen bases, Sheboygan’s Cole Heili in doubles and Oshkosh’s Trent Whitcomb in triples.

Sheboygan’s Taylor Schwarz led in pitching with a 1.17 earned run average. He was 3-0. The dominator of the league, though, was Lombard’s Andrew Mamlic from the University of Illinois, who went 8-0 (including one no-hitter) to lead the league in wins and accompanied that with 1.66 earned run average and a league leading 45 strikeouts in 43 innings pitched.

The Wisconsin State League welcomes inquiries from semi-pro and amateur teams interested in joining. Teams can contact commissioner Tony Gerharz at 920-426-5926 or secretary Denny Moyer at 920-458-6377 or at sac@excel.net.