HOLMEN — The ability to begin a pitching rotation with Aaron Ploszay and Paul Goryl instantly made the Holmen High School baseball team a contender for the MVC championship this season.
Ploszay, a senior left-hander, and Goryl, a senior right-hander, have lived up to the expectations that surround them and have commanded the strike zone throughout what has become a 10-4-1 season for the Vikings.
Holmen is 8-0 in the MVC and leads Aquinas (9-2, 5-1) and Onalaska (5-8, 4-2) at the top of the conference after a 10-0 five-inning win over Logan (7-5, 3-3) last week. The Vikings have allowed 24 runs in conference games, but half of those came in a 15-12 victory over Tomah. That leaves 12 for the seven remaining games.
Ploszay is 4-0 with a 1.05 ERA and Goryl 4-1 with a 2.05 ERA.
“Paul has done a good job of keeping the ball down this year,” said Holmen coach Mark Wall, whose team owns a 2.59 ERA. “He’s mixing up his pitches, and he’s always around the zone.
“Aaron can be pretty magical with his stuff but sometimes a little more erratic than I’d like. He can get into some high pitch counts, but having those two on the bump can allow you to relax a little.”
Goryl has struck out 34 batters over 30 2/3 innings and Ploszay 33 over 20. Ploszay has allowed just 11 hits — one for extra bases. Goryl has walked just four.
But aside from those numbers, Wall has used 10 pitchers this season and just two have an ERA higher than 3.77. Both of them have combined to pitch less than 10 innings.
“If we aren’t throwing strikes, we have another pitcher throwing strikes,” Ploszay, a Madison Area Technical College commit, said of the duo. “We also have a good defense behind us and the bats to get the job done.”
Goryl is also continuing his pitching career after graduation and has announced his future landing spot as UW-Eau Claire.
While Wall was confident with his pitching staff, he wasn’t as sure about finding consistent hitting. The Vikings have certainly provided it.
“I knew we’d perform well on the bump,” Wall said. “Our lineup has been a pleasant surprise not just over the past six games but the entire season.
“We’re hitting for some power, and we’re getting some extra-base hits.”
Infielder Nolan Mashak, a sophomore, leads the team with a .543 batting average. He has driven in 10 runs and has two doubles and a triple.
Outfielder Joe Meeter and infielder Noah Oswald are batting .431 and .410, respectively. Meeter has 11 RBIs and two home runs among his seven extra-base hits. Oswald has also homered twice and has a team-high 23 RBIs to go with six doubles.
With six regulars batting .300 or better, Holmen has been the recipient of production throughout the lineup.
“We try to preach driving the ball,” Wall said. “We go gap to gap. We aren’t looking for home runs, but we have a few this year.
“We’re looking for a pacesetter, someone to get that drive for a base hit, and the next guy to take the challenge and continue it.”
Being able to accomplish that at important times is everything in baseball, and Wall said there is one aspect of his team’s production that stands out — two-out success.
“The number of runs we’ve gotten with two outs is fantastic,” Wall said. “One game, I think it was against Tomah, we scored nine runs and eight of them came with two outs. Those are such huge momentum-builders for our lineup and a killer to the defense.
“That’s been a huge benefit for us this year.”
The challenge of the Vikings’ next game comes in the form of G-E-T in Galesville on Friday. Holmen has struggled against nonconference opponents and was swept in a doubleheader by Menomonie on Saturday. The Red Hawks are 8-5 and lead the Coulee Conference with a 4-2 mark entering their game at Arcadia today.
