A year ago, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran baseball was in the midst of a somewhat pedestrian year. The Lancers finished the 2023 season with an 8-13 record and in the bottom half of the Dairyland Conference. After the way last season went, few may have guessed that the Lancers would be a real threat in the Dairyland this year, but that’s exactly what’s happened.
Immanuel Lutheran is off to a 7-1 start this season, throwing elbows atop the Dairyland standings like it did just a couple of years ago. The Lancers actually started 7-0 before Blair-Taylor — another Dairyland powerhouse — knocked them off in a 1-0 rockfight.
The Wildcats and Eleva-Strum are still unbeaten in conference play, but Immanuel Lutheran is right behind them with just the lone loss. It’s a big step in the right direction, but how did the turnaround happen? Well, it may have actually begun at the end of last season.
“I think some of it is just another year of experience. Most of the guys we had on last year’s team are back,” Lancers head coach Joe Lau said. “After we got off to a pretty poor start last year, we started to play better baseball [in] the second half of the season.”
The Lancers closed last season with a 6-4 record in their final 10 games — including a pair of postseason wins — after a 2-9 start. The bats in particular heated up for Immanuel Lutheran as the Lancers finished the season hitting .282 at the plate after batting around the .150 mark in the first half.
The momentum at the plate has carried over as five Lancers are batting over .250 and six players are reaching base at a .360 clip or better. Christian Koenig in particular has been a force to be reckoned with at the dish, hitting .577 while slugging .961 this season, both the best marks on the team. The infielder also leads the team in runs batted in with 16.
Another pair of seniors are having exceptional starts as well. Ben Radernacher and Bryce Sydow are each batting north of .400 and have an OPS of over 1.100. The duo each have five doubles on the year and Radermacher has a pair of triples to boot.
“It’s definitely our seniors this year that are the ones contributing the most, which is good to see,” Lau said.
Another contributing factor to Immanuel Lutheran’s success on the diamond could be their achievements on the hardwood. Many of the Lancers on the baseball team — including Radermacher, Sydow, Koenig and Carter Rutz — were a part of an Immanuel Lutheran basketball season that saw the Lancers go 19-6 and win a regional championship.
Lau believes that’s helped build his players confidence, helped them play more relaxed and ultimately aided in their early season triumphs.
Rutz in particular was the leading scorer on the basketball team and has also been a vital part of the baseball team. The senior’s 2023 on the diamond was cut short due to injury in the third game of the year, but he’s come back strong as the team’s primary starting pitcher.
In Immanuel Lutheran’s eight games this season, Rutz has started six of them. The senior is 2-0 and has a 1.11 ERA while striking out 32 and walking 16 in 25.1 innings pitched this season. Opponents have just one extra base hit off of him this season.
The Lancers have also gotten plenty from Rutz at the plate as the senior is hitting .357 this season.
“I told him that if he could avoid walking people and learn a second pitch that he could throw for a strike, he’d experienced some successes here and I think he took that to heart,” Lau said. “He’s always been a hard worker in whatever sport he’s participated in.”
“The other thing that he’s been good with this year is we have two freshmen starters and he seems to get along pretty well with them and [has been] taking them under his wing a bit.”
Lau also stated that the team as a whole seems to be a very cohesive and tightly knit group. A large part of that is owed to much of the team being comprised of seniors, but the atmosphere has undoubtedly helped and set an example for younger players.
“I just think the locker room atmosphere seems to be a lot better this year,” Lau said. “They seem to do a lot of stuff outside of school and baseball together so I think they anticipate this is their last run at spending this part of the year together.”
Whether the Lancers can win another Dairyland Conference crown or not remains to be seen as Blair-Taylor and Eleva-Strum are stiff competition. Nonetheless, Immanuel Lutheran has given itself a strong turnaround and looks to be a tough out for anyone it faces.
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