The Westside baseball team finished out their regular season with a 13-3 win over the Westview Wolverines, securing their spot in the state championship by hosting the A-1 district. Westside finished the regular season with a record of 29-3, their best regular season finish since 2014 where they went on to win the state championship that year. Westside secured the win versus Westview in no better fashion, a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning by Kai Fredrick his first of the season, and it came at a no better time.
“It was great to walk it off,” Frederick said. “I was supposed to go out and pitch the next inning, I was a little early on the first two pitches and I stayed back and drove the ball.”
Last season the Warriors went just 11-15, losing in the first round of districts and with a new, yet proven head coach in Jason Shockey coming from Bellevue West it was a rebuilding year in many senses for many people who followed Nebraska high school baseball. Before the season Kansas State commit Markus Chandler was injured and ruled out for the spring season dealing another blow to the Warriors especially the pitching rotation.
However after the Warriors started 11-2, Westside went into the Frank Ryan invitational having to face three top ten teams including the then undefeated Lincoln East. Westside went 3-0 in that span including beating the Spartans by six to hand them their first loss of the year. The star of that weekend was Duncan Hansen, who came alive with his bat hitting three homers and batting nearly .500 over the week.
Westside then won all their games going into the Metro Championship Tournament as the one seed, beating Omaha Bryan and Westview by a combined 31 runs to send them to the semi-finals where they played Elkhorn South. The Storm and Warriors went to extra innings before the Warriors snagged a run to win it in the eighth, Westside then had to make a last inning rally against Millard North scoring five in the final frame then shutting down the Mustangs to win their first Metro title since 2015.
Westside then went on to win the Papillion invite taking down Gretna, Millard West and Millard South to win that season ‘s tournament. Their last one of the year ended not the way the Warriors liked losing in the first game to Papillion South, beating Millard South again and yet although losing initially to Millard North they used an ineligible pitcher overturning their loss into the win and going 2-1 in the Millard South invite, before finishing up the regular season defeating Lincoln North Star and Westview.
Westside catcher CJ Shockey talks about their bounce back from the two losses.
“We were in a little lull there for a second going into the Millard South Invatational, we lost that first game and we weren’t ourselves,” Shockey said “We were low in the dugout and we had no energy and then we all got it together and we were starting to be us again.”
Westside still has a long way to go if they want to win their first state championship in 12 years. The Warriors secured their spot in the A-1 district with the win over Westview leapfrogging Lincoln East for that spot where they will play Bellevue East in the first game.
This season has a lot of parity with many teams having what it takes to win the state championship at Werner Park come May 22nd but if Westside keeps playing the way they have this season it could be the Warriors year to bring home their ninth baseball state championship.
