By Jennifer Eisenbart
Sports Editor
In a year where Wilmot narrowly edged out Burlington and Westosha Central for the Southern Lakes Conference baseball crown, the Demons could still claim they had the best of the best players in the conference.
Burlington (9-4 in the SLC) finished with three players on the All-SLC first team and three on the second, the top numbers for any of the eight schools in the league. Wilmot, which won the league title with a 10-4 record, had just one player on the first and second team, while Central (9-4) had two on the first team and two on the second team.
Union Grove, which made a late season push after a difficult middle of the season (7-7), finished with one player on the first team and two on the second, while Waterford (5-9) had just one player on the first team.
For the Demons, late-season losses doomed the hopes of winning the Southern Lakes. But that didn’t mean BHS was lacking talent. Pitcher Austin Smith and outfielder Luke Syens – both seniors – were named to the first team, along with sophomore infielder Chandler Meseberg.
Syens, who batted .590 through the 17 games listed on wispreps.com, was named the SLC Player of the Year. Syens had 10 RBI and 23 hits in those 17 games, and had a .949 slugging percentage.
Smith, meanwhile, was 6-3 as a starter and pitched Burlington into the sectional final against Kenosha Bradford in the postseason. Meseberg was a solid presence in the infield, and also batted .609 in the six games listed on wispreps.com.
Named to the second team for the Demons were infielders Trent Taylor and Nolan Friend, and outfielder Zach Borkowski. Friend is a junior, while the other two are seniors.
Union Grove junior infielder Adam Filz was named to the first team, as was Waterford outfielder Tanner Hunsucker. Filz batted .704 in the games listed for him on wispreps.com, while, Hunsucker was .556. Neither had complete stats for the season, however.
Rounding out the first team was Westosha Central’s Dalton Sjong and Sam Shelton, Badger’s Peter Krien and Eric Skipper, and Wilmot’s Kenny Eterno.
On the second team for Union Grove was catcher Brad Jacob and outfielder Matt Wolff.
Also on the second team were Chaz Schmidt of Wilmot, Mike Sorensen and Mike Michelau of Westosha, and Brendan Huber of Delavan-Darien. Of the 19 first- and second-team picks, 12 were seniors this year – including all but two picks on the second team. Meseberg was the only player who wasn’t a junior or a senior named to either of the teams.
Burlington, Waterford and Union Grove each had one honorable mention selection as well. For BHS, it was Matt Gilanyi, while Waterford’s Matt Bartling got the honor. Union Grove’s pick was Ben Miller. Gilanyi and Bartling are seniors, while Miller is just a sophomore.
Badger finished at 8-6 in the SLC, while Delavan-Darien and Union Grove were 7-7. After Waterford, Elkhorn brought up the rear with a 1-13 record.
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