On Tuesday, April 21, the WIAA Board of Control asserted to cancel all 2020 spring competitions, baseball included. While saddened for the graduating class of 2020, the PBR Wisconsin staff will do its best to highlight what could have been this spring, in what was set to be an exciting campaign filled with intriguing storylines to know and players to follow.

We published our ‘Watchlist Squads’ post on Monday, April 20, spotlighting almost 20 need-to-know programs that fell short of official ‘Bubble’ or Power 25 status for our preseason team rankings. Today, and for the remainder of the week, we’re going to be individually detailing our ‘On the Bubble’ teams – teams that earned serious consideration for our Preseason Power 25 Rankings, but ultimately fell just short.

Our 2020 preseason coverage continues today.

Team: Appleton West
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 19-10
Conference: Fox Valley Association
WIAA Class: D-1
Head Coach: Mitch Krug
Playoff Run: Regional Finalists
2019 Final Rank: NR
Returning Starters: 6
Returning Pitchers: 4 

OUTLOOK

The historic Fox Valley Association is without an obvious favorite before the start of its 2020 campaign, and the Terrors looked totally capable of finishing on top. Head coach Mitch Krug has done a lot in a short period of time to reverse Appleton West’s course, and this spring looked like the culmination of all that has been building.

Unfortunately, the Terrors will be robbed of the chance to get this special 2020 class to finish on the highest of notes, hoisting an FVA title, and potentially more, in their own backyard.

We’ll detail one of the state’s top senior classes below, but we’ll use this space to highlight the role players that were set to facilitate a deep Terrors run through the Appleton area and beyond. The juniors in this dugout, C Nick LaVigne and OF Wolfgang Kalz, were starters as sophomores and were going to be integral to the team’s success in 2020. LaVigne demonstrated strong catch-and-throw statistics last spring and has the strength to do more damage as he acclimates further to the varsity level. Kalz is a lean, quick-footed athlete who hit .284 as a sophomore and was surely going to build off that mark this season.

You’ll notice that, when factoring in this deep, talented 2020 class, West had what it took to emerge from the FVA and could have mustered a deep playoff run – one to remember.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

It’s a downright shame we won’t get the chance to see what a senior season would look like for the mighty Tyler Tetzke (Lake County CC commit). Tetzke had one of the strongest offensive campaigns of anyone in 2019 – he hit .489 with four homers and 28 RBIs, and was set to power the Terrors yet again. Tetzke also served as the team’s No. 2 in its rotation where he went 4-0 with a 1.22 ERA.

Ahead of Tetzke in the rotation: LHP Kaden Krueger (Bradley), one of the top arms in the state’s 2020 class. His junior year results were solid, but Krueger’s capable of special, and if he put it all together with Tetzke backing him up in the rotation, the Terrors would be tough to beat in the one-game elimination playoff setting.

SS Ethan Gause and RHP/OF Patrick Jung (Bryant & Stratton, WI) are also a pair of important seniors that were going to help steer West’s spring. Gause hit .289 as a junior with more to come and Jung operating as the No. 3 on staff is more evidence that this staff is deep and can hang for the long run.

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