Prep Baseball Report

Cyskiewicz, Crusaders power past Raccoons again


By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. – After hosting the Raccoons on Tuesday and earning an overwhelming 14-4 win, Catholic Memorial visited Roosevelt Park on Thursday to take on Oconomowoc at their own turf in this Classic Eight contest. The Crusaders earned a second straight win of the season against the No. 7-ranked team within our Power 25, this time by a score of 8-4.

The win should help boost Catholic Memorial’s own resume for a nudge up the Power 25, where they’re currently ranked No. 20.

They couldn’t have won on Thursday without the aggressive and impressive Alex Cyskiewicz. He was one of Catholic Memorial’s go-to bats last year and remains the same kind of contributor this spring, and he elicited lots of loud contact against Oconomowoc’s arms in their second game of the week.

The Crusaders made Raccoons starter, sophomore lefty Patrick Kraemer, pay for allowing the first two baserunners of the game reach base via a hit by pitch and walk. Kraemer nearly pitched out of the early mess, getting Chris Byhre to fly out to center and older brother Rich Byhre to swing and miss on a 2-2 fastball up out of the zone. But that only set the table for the aforementioned Cyskiewicz, who was clearly looking to put a dent in the ball quickly. He fouled off the first pitch, took two balls and then a strike to even the count at two, and then smashed a liner into right field to bring home Luke Fox. Matt Klement took advantage of the first pitch in his at-bat, a fastball up in the zone, and mashed it deep into the right-center gap to bring home another two runs, giving the Crusaders an early 3-0 lead.

Finally, it was Rich Byhre’s turn to take the ball on the mound. The 6-foot-5 righty was his typically towering self on the mound. He struck out Oconomowoc’s lead-off man Steve Diderrich to start the half inning, peppering the zone with his trademark heavy fastball. After getting the next out quickly on a first-pitch flyout, Byhre walked Miller Wallace and got the following batter to fly out but both at-bats went to full counts. After a clean second inning, Byhre worked out of another jam in the third, battling some command issues, and was relieved to start the fourth. He finished the game having thrown three innings and did not allow a run on two hits, two walks, and he struck out the one.

Catholic Memorial struck again in the fourth with a hit parade to start the inning. Cyskiewicz led the inning off with a line-drive rocket to center on the first pitch of his at-bat. Klement pushed an 0-2 fastball to center for another single and Joe Koscinski smashed another single to center right after that to load the bases for Matthew Schultz. With Kraemer still on the mound some commotion and miscommunication resulted in an unusual balk, scoring the first run of the inning before Schultz even saw the first pitch of his at-bat. On his actual first pitch, he lined yet another single to center scoring Klement, giving the Crusaders a 5-0 lead. Later in the inning, Fox’s sacrifice fly elevated it to 6-0.

Oconomowoc showed signs of life in the bottom of the fourth however, off the Crusaders’ fresh arm Kellan Short. Nate Platter ripped a single to the center fielder Fox with one away to score Hunter Olson, who had just doubled in the prior at-bat.

But Cyskiewicz tugged the big lead back and then some in the top half of the fifth. He slugged a home run over the left-center field fence off reliever Nick Brazelton, one of the team’s best arms, on a line drive that just kept going, scoring Chris Byhre, thus giving his team an 8-1 lead.

The Raccoons mounted their biggest comeback in the next half inning on RBI base hits from Gavin Daniel, Platter, and Olson – cutting their deficit to four runs. But this wound up being as close as they could get.

Memorial’s Short pitched the final four frames in and out of trouble but prevented the Raccoons from scoring in the final two innings, preserving his team’s big win, their 12th of the season (12-5). Meanwhile, Oconomowoc slips to 12-6 this spring.

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