For Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD – Marshfield’s Nutz Deep Pride U16 Baseball team finished another weekend undefeated as it went 4-0 at Witter Field, in the annual Wisconsin Rapids U17 Junior Legion baseball tournament July 5-7.

The Pride boys led off the tournament with a 9-7 victory against a very strong pitcher, in Wisconsin Rapids’ Erik Steinhilber.  Steinhilber went undefeated as a varsity hurler this past Wisconsin Valley season at 4-0, with an excellent 1.45 ERA.

Pride then beat a Lake Geneva squad, 19-1. In the next win against another U16 squad from Rapids, Pride put up 12 runs against the opponents three. The tournament championship was sealed with a 5-0 win over a scrappy Auburndale team.

“We were fortunate to put up the number of runs we did, although the focus at the plate needs to get a little better,” Coach Tim Kraus said. “Our pitching for the most part has been our biggest asset. You’d think that after scoring 45 runs in 4 games, hitting wouldn’t be a concern, but that is (what) we need to continue to improve on, especially going forward into some real quality upcoming tournaments.”

Pride will travel to a “Midwest Invitational Tournament” in Bettendorf, IA, July 12-14.