Cinderella Beavers Head to state

By: Cade Souhrada

The Wilton Beavers baseball team had a rocky start to their season with a record of 4-7.  Along with the rocky start, the Beavers also lost two pivotal pitchers in their lineup: Sophomore Kane Willey, out with a labrum injury, and Junior Drew Keith with a season-ending elbow injury.  Keith also played 3rd base for the Beavers, so a replacement for Keith's position was needed.  Step up Sophomore Jacob Mills and Senior Chaz Allison.  The Beavers overcame adversity and won 17 of their last 21 games to end the season with a record of 21-11.  Junior center fielder Ben Garvin said this season, “was a roller coaster.  We started off slow and couldn’t get much going.  Then we clicked after a bad loss.  Everyone came together and we played as a team.  We started believing we could do it and played like it.”  At the beginning of the season, nobody expected the Beavers to have a winning record let alone go to state, especially since the two previous years resulted in losing record seasons. 

The Beavers went on to beat multiple ranked teams, starting their winning streak with the 7th ranked team in Class 2A, Mid-Prairie.  The Beavers started the game strong and ended the game by ten-running Mid-Prairie within 5 innings.  The Beavers also shocked one of the top-ranked teams in Class 1A, Sigourney.  Going into the postseason the Beavers felt overlooked, even though they were ranked fourth in their district, behind Northeast, Durant, and Marquette Catholic.  The Beavers began their postseason with a win over Camanche followed by one of their toughest games of the year against Northeast.  The Beavers lost to Northeast earlier in the year 3-1 and were looking for revenge to move to the district championship with a win.  The Beavers were successful, winning the close, hard-fought game 2-1.

The district championship game was against Tipton.  Tipton's season had ups and downs, but ended their season on a high note making a run in the playoffs.  Tipton played a hard-fought game against the Beavers in the district championship, but the Beavers pulled away with a 3-0 victory to move on to the substate game. 

At the substate game, which was held at Solon, the Beavers matched up against Cascade.  After a rocky start, the Beavers pulled it together starting with a two-run homerun from Carter Hull that would put the Beavers on top.  The Beavers then took the field on defense and gave up two more runs to go down 3-2.  However, the Beavers caught on fire in the top of the 5th inning.  Casen Reid got on base, and Hull hit a double to score Reid and tie the game.  Cade Souhrada came up to bat and swung at the first pitch he saw to hit in pinch runner Kale McQuillen taking the lead.  The Beavers went into the bottom of the seventh inning hoping to hold off Cascade to move on to the state tournament.  The Beavers started the inning in a not-so-promising way.  The first two batters were walked and the third batter was intentionally walked to load up the bases with zero outs and only ahead by one run.  Luckily, pitcher Kane Willey struck out the next batter to get the first out of the inning.  The next batter hit a ground ball to shortstop Owen Hassell who made the play and threw the runner out at home.  It came down to the final out with the bases loaded.  The final batter hit a ground ball to second base, where Chaz Allison made the play and the Beavers were able to move on to the state tournament with a record of 21-10.  Unfortunately, the Beavers lost their next game to Sumner-Fredericksburg 2-6, ending the season with a record of 21-11.

Senior right fielder, Casen Reid said, “I thought the season went very well for how young we were.”  The Beavers graduated three pivotal players, but are returning seven starters next season in hopes to have another tremendous season.  The Beavers had many team accomplishments this year.  The Beavers placed second in the River Valley Conference and were named district champions, substate champions, and state participants.  There were also many personal accomplishments for many Beaver players: six All-Conference players, seven All-District players, and three All-State players.  Coach Souhrada stated, “after a tough loss early in the season the guys really came together and focused and won 17 out of their last 20 games to get to the state tournament.  It was a great team effort.”  The Beavers hope to build off of this historic season to have strong success in the 2025 season.