Season and Wick Warren’s career end for Princeton with 5-2 loss to Kewanee

PRINCETON – The end of the season and an era of Princeton Tigers baseball came to a close Monday at Prather Field.

The Tigers bowed out in the quarterfinals of the Class 2A Bureau Valley Regional with a 5-2 loss to Kewanee. It also was the last game for Princeton coach Wick Warren, 76, who is retiring after eight years at the Tigers helm.

“It’s time. It’s time for an old man to give it up and let a young guy take it over,” Warren said. “I had a great time here. I had three tough years the last three years with [my health]. It’s time to go be a dad and granddad to my grandchildren and roll with that.”

The game carried the same theme for the Tigers of late. They struck out 12 times and had only five hits.

“We had a 6-0 run and hit .394, right at .400, and scored 60 runs in those six games. Flip it around and then we go about 2-8 and we’re lucky to get two runs and we’ve got 10 or 12 strikeouts and four or five or hits,” Warren said. “Now the last two games, Seneca (11-1) and Ottawa (12-9), we kind of turned it back around and had the good hits and all that.

“Today, [Kewanee’s Colson Welgat is] an OK pitcher, and we just did not hit him. That’s the name of the game.”

Senior Jordan Reinhardt, the last of the four Reinhardt brothers to suit up for the Tigers, said the season-ending games are always tough, “especially to a team we know we can beat.”

“Colson is a great pitcher. We just couldn’t get any hits off him,” Reinhardt said. “We just needed to put the ball in play. I think we had 12 strikeouts. They’re known for making quite a few errors, but we couldn’t put the ball in play.”

Hitting was not a problem for the Boilermakers, who banged out 11 hits off Tigers starter Luke Smith (5⅔ IP, 9 H, 5 ER) and reliever Will Lott (1⅓, 2 H).

Griffin Hicks, the No. 8 hitter in the Boilers’ lineup, had a clutch two-run single to right field with Lincoln Mason scoring on a high throw to the plate to give Kewanee a 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth.

“He’s come on real strong toward the end of this season,” Kewanee coach John Moraski said. “That’s kind of a rotating spot toward the bottom of the order, and he’s really secured it with a lot of good at-bats. He has good ABs and gets on base a lot and has a solid OBP and keeps things going for us and turns it over to the top, where we have some good sticks waiting for it.”

The Tigers managed to score in the fourth inning without a hit. Walks to Ace Christiansen, Nolan Kloepping and Ryan Jagers loaded the bases with one out for Jace Stuckey, who drove in Christiansen on a groundout to third base.

Stihl Brokaw started a one-out rally for Princeton in the fifth with a single to center. He took second on a wild pitch and scored on a single to left by Christiansen to make it 3-2.

The Boilers scored twice in the top of the sixth with a walk, an RBI triple to left by Ben Taylor and an RBI single by Welgat to left to take a 5-2 lead.

Christiansen, who’s been dropped from leadoff to the No. 3 hole, went 2 for 3, reaching base three times with a walk and stolen base.

Welgat led the Boilers with three hits and an RBI, with Taylor (RBI), Landon Sheets and Lincoln Mason adding two hits each.

The Tigers finish what’s been a tough season with a rash of injuries to their pitching staff at 10-13-1.

“We had pitching injuries like we never had before,” Warren said. “It’s hard to battle through. Hats off to the all the kids to battle through that.”

Kewanee stole a run in the first inning when Ben Taylor scored on the back end of a double steal with Welgatt. Both Boilers singled to get on base.

“We pitched it well. Defended well. It was a nice clean baseball game on our end,” Moraski said. “Got some big two-out hits late in the game that gave us insurance and let us settle in when it got tight there for a while.

“Colton pitched a a good game. He’s been kind of our horse. We’ve been riding him quite a bit. When he throws strikes, he’s tough to beat. He can mix speeds. He’ll walk a few and gets himself in trouble and then out of trouble quite a bit.”

The Boilermakers (13-18) will face IVC in Wednesday’s semifinals at Bureau Valley.