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. We also declared 18 more programs official ‘On the Bubble’ teams, teams that earned sincere Power 25 consideration.

Today, we continue our countdown to No. 1, the top-ranked team on the PBR Wisconsin Preseason Power 25. We’ll be releasing a team a day in our lead-up to No. 1, and we’re onto No. 20 this evening.

Team: Kimberly
Preseason Rank: No. 20
2019 Record: 26-3
Conference: Fox Valley Association
WIAA Class: D-1
Head Coach: Ryan McGinnis
Playoff Run: Sectional Finalists
2019 Final Rank: No. 8
Returning Starters: 3
Returning Pitchers: 2 

OUTLOOK

The Fox Valley Association perennial powerhouse, Kimberly, was set to undergo something of an on-the-fly rebuild in 2020. Certainly, the Papermakers were capable of competing inside the legendary FVA – and beyond – at the same time, the program graduated an historic 2019 class led by twins Drew and Zach Lechnir, who were both earning playing time as freshmen at Central Michigan, as well as Beau Schumacher (Minnesota State), John Nett (St. Cloud State), Trey Tennessen (Wisconsin-Oshkosh), Gavin Lefeber, Connor Chitko, Trent Holz, and Zach VanderHyden.

Naturally, a program like this has endured a heavy graduation before, and they have one of the state’s top coaches at the helm to lead the way again, Ryan McGinnis, who was all but guaranteed to earn his 350th career win in 2020, but he’ll enter 2021 still five shy.

The first five hitters in the lineup of Kimberly’s sectional finals loss to Preble are graduated; returning are only OF Michael Alt (2020), RHP/INF Jake Huntington (2021), and 2B Cal McGinnis (2021). Alt’s a speedster who used that trait to help him hit .434 as a junior, so his table-setter qualities would have been extremely valuable to this year’s team, while the other two hit in the .250 range in their sophomore seasons.

A pair of juniors broke out in front of our staff at winter showcases earlier this year and were set to positively impact this year’s squad: RHP Tommy Ellisen and C Cam Miller. Ellisen debuted at No. 79 overall on our recently updated 2021 rankings after a solid ‘pen tossed in Madison where he was up to 85 mph with the makings of effective offspeed. Miller is already an above-average backstop and his right-handed bat looked ready to debut at the varsity level this season.

Cameron Miller (3/8/20)

And it’s unclear if he would have seen any action as a freshman, but freshman C Maxwell Kalk has identified himself as a follow member of this 2023 class and it’s possible his strong left-handed bat would have sought some varsity at-bats, somehow. If not, he’s one to watch in the future.

Kimberly was making up for some substantial losses in 2020 but the pieces were there for yet another successful spring in the FVA. Frankly, the quality of competition in the conference would have been as good as ever with Hortonville looking similarly talented, and the same can be said about Appleton’s West and North programs, and Neenah was lurking as an under-the-radar program to know, too. Still, the Papermakers were capable of making it seven conference titles in 10 springs this season.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

Apart from the aforementioned Alt, the name to know inside this senior class would have been big LHP Donovan Schultz (Evansville commit). He’s a loose-armed lefty who throws from a tough angle that helps him earn his outs – and he was returning eight wins and a 1.30 ERA to the top of this rotation, too. He recorded some of the most important outs for this team in 2019 and he was set to do so again as the team’s ace in 2020.

Donovan Schultz (6/18/19)

INF Ben Coons (Saint Marys, MN commit) is a strong, compact right-handed bat that could have further stabilized this lineup, same can be said about OF Nolan Harke (Wisconsin-Stout) and INF Jack Kiefer (Saint Xavier). C Luke Sweere, OF Jack Steger, and OF Matt Holland – further evidence that few teams in the state can retool on the go like Kimberly.

This year’s FVA was set to be an extra exciting one, but the same can be said when forecasting the 2021 scene, giving us something to look forward to.

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