Eight days ago, at the end of a disappointing, mistake-filled senior night loss to Pius XI, Germantown baseball coach Parrish Wagner talked about the upcoming WIAA playoffs, how the Warhawks would set their pitching up in order to play three games.
An idea that would take them all the way through to the sectional final and a possible trip to the state tournament. A tall order for the nfl jerseys sectional's sixth seed with an 11-16 record going into the event and scarcely any momentum behind it.
"But these kids just believe in each other," said one Warhawk parent, shortly after Tyler Thicke pitched the underdog Germantown team to its first state tournament berth since 1986 with a highly unlikely 2-1 win over sectional top seed Menomonee Falls Saturday evening.
"Obviously, its the thing everyone hopes for," said a happy Wagner afterward. "...You'd like to say you saw it coming, but you never know. We had Tyler (an Indiana recruit) built up slowly, playing it safe the entire way and then (sophomore Brian) Keller comes through in the semifinal (a 3-2 eight-inning win over Slinger earlier in the day) which allowed us to save Tyler (for the final)."
"But no, you can never really see anything like this coming."
Germantown will play a WIAA state quarterfinal game at Bukolt Park in Stevens Point on Wednesday, against the winner of the Muskego sectional, which will have its rain-delayed final on Sunday.
The sectional final victory completed a heart-stopping tournament run for the Warhawks (14-16), who won three straight WIAA games by one run. Two of them were by Thicke, who was coming off "Tommy John" surgery last year and was severely restricted in his innings all through the regular season.
The 4-3 regional win on Tuesday against Sussex Hamilton and the Falls victory have been the only complete games for Thicke all season.
They were a long time coming.
Thicke chafed occasionally at 49ers jersey the slow recovery timeline that Wagner gave him after the 2009 surgery that cost him his entire junior season, but he came to understand it.
It all became clear to him after the regional win, when Wagner came up and said to him "This is what we're here for. It's time."
And Thicke seized his moment. He'd been part of three "one and done" WIAA tournament teams and wanted to help this inexperienced squad out any way he could. He just never dreamed it could be something as good as this.
"We got past Sussex and then we got that win over Slinger and then it was my time again," he said. "A game I was actually dreading. I was hoping we'd make it, but I wasn't sure how I'd handle it. I was actually thinking, if we'd make it to state that would be fantastic, but that if we just got this far (sectional finals), that that would be great finish for us."
"I was also thinking that this is is my second full game in a week (after none all year in careful respect to his recovery process). I was going on three days rest and the extra day we got (due to the rain delay from Friday) was a big help."
It was, as Thicke allowed only an unearned run on a throwing error in the third. A run scored by Indian lead-off hitter Ryan Romens, who had singled, stole second and moved to third on a groundout. It was the only error of the game for Germantown and the first since two in the first inning of the semifinal win over Slinger.
Thicke had six strikeouts and two walks, but never allowed an extra base hit, and put down the last nine Falls batters he faced, punching out the last two swinging, as the Warhawks stopped the red-hot Indians (33-11) 13-game winning streak.
The Warhawks got all the offense they needed in the top of the third, as sophomore outfielder Jimmy Doedens took a Ben Burns fastball and rode it over the leftfield fence for a two-out, two-run homer. Mike Fischer, who had singled with one out, also scored on the play.
It was Doedens' first home run of the season.
"I thought it felt good," he said, "but then I started watching it and then I saw the leftfielder turn around and stop and all I could say was 'Oh gosh!' After that, all I could do was just make sure I touched all the bases."
That pitch was the only mistake of the night by the hard-throwing senior Burns, who had eight strikeouts and no walks on the night. He put down the final eight Warhawks he faced, including the last three by strikeout, to give his team a chance.
But it wasn't enough.
"After Tuesday night (the regional win), I tossed and turned all night thinking about this," said Germantown infielder Jordan Infield, the only other player with appreciable experience coming back this season aside from Thicke. "Envisioning everyone on the team piling on Seahawks jersey the mound after we had won. We did what we had to. Jimmy (Doedens) had the big hit and Tyler (Thicke) pitched his heart out and gave us a chance."
"And above all, we finally stopped beating ourselves. We tightened up our defense and beat a great team today."
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