1,300 mile, 20 hour trip to Florida helped spark Kiel baseball's successful season

KIEL — Back at the end of March, the Kiel Raiders baseball team had a bit of an unusual road trip.

Kiel traveled 1,300 miles and 20 hours to Apopka, Florida, to play a series of games.

The Raiders lost all three, but took valuable information from the trip, coach Brad Mey said.

“We went to Florida, found out a lot about ourselves down there,” Mey said. “Competition is totally different but it prepared us for the season.”

Senior outfielder Grant Manz agreed with his coach.

“It was a really big learning trip,” Manz said. “It helped us find out who we were against bigger teams. We found out what we needed to fix and what we did well each game. It was a big help for us.”

After those three losses, Kiel rattled off 18-straight wins and won the Eastern Wisconsin Conference title.

It was the first conference title for the Raiders in the spring baseball season, having previously competed in the summer until the WIAA disbanded the summer season six years ago.

With such a lofty winning streak, Kiel rose to No. 2 in the state in Division 2 according to the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association poll.

Then last Friday, the Raiders fell to Winnebago Lutheran 6-1 and just like the trip to Florida, got a dose of needed corrections.

“We got to clean up our mistakes,” Manz said. “No more mental or physical errors. We got to make sure we dim those down so once its playoff time those don’t show up.”

If the team was going to have a hiccup late in the season, senior outfielder Jackson Neese thinks it was better to happen in the regular season.

“Like coach said, better now than in the playoffs because we have a bigger goal ahead of us,” Neese said.

Those bigger goals would be a return to the WIAA state tournament, having qualified last season in Division 3.

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“That was a special team last year but this is also a special team,” Mey said of what last year’s run did for this season. “The team has the believe we’re going to win every game and have the upper hand.”

Neese says it was a taste of what Kiel hopes to accomplish, having lost in the semifinals without a first-ever spring state championship appearance.

The Raiders last reached a baseball championship game in the summer of 1969.

“I think it was a fun trip but left us unsatisfied and wanting more,” Neese said.

Eyan Dessellier, a senior pitcher and shortstop, knows with high expectations comes the weight of backing them up.

“We’ve got high expectations but have to prove them right,” Dessellier said.

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In a weird way, the loss to Winnebago Lutheran might be a blessing in disguise.

“Last couple games we were on the other side of a blowout so its good to know what a competitive game feels like,” Mey said.

Kiel, which earned a No. 1 seed in its half sectional, begins the postseason on Tuesday although its opponent was not known as of press time.

Contact Tom Dombeck at 920-686-2965 or tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Tom_Dombeck.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: State-ranked Kiel baseball buoyed by trip to Florida to start season