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: Beloit Turner
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 20-3
Conference: Rock Valley
WIAA Class: D-2
Head Coach: Jeff Clowes
Playoff Run: Sectional Semifinalists
2019 Final Rank: On The Bubble
Returning Starters: 5
Returning Pitchers: 3

OUTLOOK

Simply put, the Rock Valley Conference is, consistently, a dogpile. For the first and only time in the decade, the RVC had its first lone conference title winner: Beloit Turner. Jefferson had a share of seven straight titles up until that point, though the program had never won the title outright. Turner became the first outright RVC champ in the 10 seasons since the state realignment and the squad looked capable of repping the area at the state tournament.

The Trojans squared off against in-conference rivals McFarland in the sectional semis and lost an oh-so-close contest, 2-1, to see their season and at that stage.

Turner’s 2019 squad was comprised of a stout senior core, but there were still plenty of pieces headed back in 2020 to help the Trojans exact revenge on the rest of the RVC once more. It is, again, a group of seniors set to do most of the heavy lifting and we’re saddened we won’t get to experience this group battle it out for RVC supremacy in 2020 – especially considering there would have been a little extra fuel to their contests with McFarland this spring.

With a mostly intact starting staff and half of its everyday lineup returning, the Trojans could have been well on their way to at least a share of its fifth straight Rock Valley Conference title, and more.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

Turner was returning two all-conference honorees to the top of its rotation: Preston Viens and Drew Ries. Both are two-way standouts for these Trojans, but Viens had become essential as the team’s go-to arm. He was credited with nine wins in his junior year, with a 1.75 ERA to go along with it. Ries returns five wins as well and was a surefire candidate to improve on his respectable 3.76 ERA as a junior himself, giving Turner a bonafide one-two punch on it staff. Fellow senior Kenny Draeving was set to contribute as a third arm to know on staff, too.

Viens is also critical to the team when he’s not pitching, operating as the team’s everyday shortstop and he hit .300 last year on top of it. Ries himself hit .355 roaming the infield – his reliability and versatility helped the team in a multitude of ways. Also returning to this everyday lineup: Jack Scharlau and Keegan Marquart, two more seniors to sturdy this perennially competitive ship.

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