7/29/22 | Nick Witwer
Throughout this past week, the Green Bay Blue Ribbons took part in the 2022 North
Eastern Wisconsin Baseball League Classic. The tournament features three games and acts as a
post season for the NEWBL. The other teams that competed in this year’s annual tournament
were the Appleton Legends, the Menasha Macs, and the Sheboygan A’s. The Blue Ribbons got a
chance to play against each of these teams.
On Monday, July 25th , the Blue Ribbons hosted the Menasha Macs. Entering Monday’s
game, Green Bay owned a 3-1 record against the Macs on the year. Both offenses struggled to
push across any runs early. Menasha scored a pair of runs in the middle innings and would lead
the Blue Ribbons 2-0 heading into the bottom of the 6th . Center fielder, Tyler Blum, would lead
off and put the Blue Ribbons on the board with what one would call a “little league homerun”.
Blum hit a soft grounder up the third base side that was fielded by the Macs pitcher, who threw
the ball past his first baseman in an attempt to get the out. Blum got to second easily and tried
his luck for third. In a second attempt to get him out, the Menasha first baseman would sail the
ball over the third basemen’s head, resulting in Blum rounding third and crossing the plate. In
the very next at bat, James Bornick sent a ball over the wall in center to tie the game. In the top
of the 7th inning, the Menasha bats came alive and put up eight runs. The Blue Ribbons failed to
score in the bottom of the inning and fell to the Macs, 10-2.
On Tuesday, July 26th , the Blue Ribbons hosted the Appleton Legends. Entering
Tuesday’s game, the season series between the two teams was tied at two games apiece. In what
would be a back-and-forth game all night, the Blue Ribbons struck first with a Trent Van Ess
solo shot in the bottom of the 1st inning. Appleton would take the lead in the 3rd inning, scoring
two runs off of three straight hits from the first three batters faced. Green Bay would strike back
in the 4th with an RBI single from Griffin Summers. The legends answered by scoring two runs
in the top of the 5th inning. In the bottom of the 5th , the Blue Ribbons would strike back yet again.
With runners on first and second base, Van Ess would come through once more, this time with a
triple that scored both runners and retied the game. The Blue Ribbons would break that tie in the
bottom of the 6th inning. After a one-out walk from Devin Brown, Andrew Schroeder became
the pinch runner and scored on a two-out triple from Brendan Willadsen. In the top of the 7th
inning, new Blue Ribbons pitcher, Troy Mannebach, would strike out the lead-off batter before
leaving the game due to injury. Noah Robinson entered the game and got two strikeouts,
including one with the bases loaded, to give Green Bay the 5-4 victory.
On Thursday, July 28th , the Blue Ribbons hosted one final tournament game, this time
against the Sheboygan A’s. This one was another pitchers’ duel early as through the first four
innings, neither team would score. In the 5th inning, the A’s were able to score three runs. The
Blue Ribbons responded in the bottom of the inning with one run from an RBI single by Griffin
Summers who was playing in his 200th career game. Sheboygan went on to add four more runs in
the 6th inning and a scoreless 7th inning from both teams resulted in a 7-1 loss for Green Bay.
Despite winning just one of the three tournament games this week, there were plenty of
positives for the Blue Ribbons. James Bornick ended the tournament 3-8 with a home run and a
walk; Trent Van Ess went 4-9 with a home run and a triple; and Griffin Summers went 3-7
with 2 walks and three stolen bases. On the mound, Owen Deprez had 10 strikeouts in five and
two thirds of an inning of work and New Blue Ribbons pitcher, Dante Wilmet allowed just one
hit and had one strike out through one and one third innings of work.
The Blue Ribbons next outing will be on Saturday, July 30th for a doubleheader against
the West Allis Nationals. It will be throwback night and the Blue Ribbons will become the De
Pere Dodgers one last time. The team will wear the old Dodgers uniforms for the first game of
the double header. Those jerseys will then be raffled off in between games. The first pitch of
game one is scheduled for 4:00 PM.