What's next for Wisconsin Rapids Rafters stars?
WISCONSIN RAPIDS - Without a doubt, the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters enjoyed their best summer of baseball.
The 7-year-old club sent five players to the Northwoods League All-Star game, won both the first- and the second-half schedule of the South Division and earned the top seed of the Northwoods League Playoffs by virtue of the best overall record for the division.
In the playoffs, the Rafters beat Lakeshore 19-3 and Battle Creek 7-3 in the single-elimination divisional round, then swept the best-of-three Summer Collegiate World Seriesby beating Eau Claire 5-4 at Witter Field and 11-4 at Carson Park. The playoff wins gave the Rafters a franchise best 53-23 record.
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A big part of the team's success was GM John Fanta, manager Craig Noto and pitching coach John Halalma for having players in waiting, in case of injuries or players having to leave for school or other reasons.
"I thought we did a good job of having a good group of talented players to bring in if someone had to leave," Fanta said. "We were able to fill spots when people left and didn't miss a beat, which is not always easy to do."
To fill the Rafters' 30-player roster from the end of May until mid August, Fanta used 25 pitchers and 23 position players to keep the roster up to date.
A total of 10 players were on the team from the start to finish. Jake Lumley and Ben Fischer played in 70 of 72 games this season.
"That's pretty amazing for Jake and Ben to be able to do that," Fanta said. "It's a long season to stay healthy."
Future college stars
After a earning a league-high 18 saves, with 40 strikeouts, eight walks, while allowing just 13 hits and six earned runs in 20 appearances, Xavier University will be pleased with the summer development of their junior-to-be closer Garrett Schilling. He had 14 saves during the college season last year.
Catcher Rob Calabrese, a junior in the fall at Illinois-Chicago, hit .306 with six doubles and one home run, but what a home run. His two-run walk-off blast propelled the Rafters to the Game 1 win over Eau Claire in the championship series. It also made the SportsCenter Top 10 plays of the night.
Lumley, who will be a junior at Canisius College this year, hit .309 with 11 doubles and four home runs and Patrick Crowmell, a junior at Clemson University this fall, hit .305 with six doubles.
"We should have quite a few guys do very well for their college teams in the fall," Fanta said. "They all put in a lot of hard work and their colleges will be proud of their results this season.
"We had some good freshmen too. And we hope some of our freshmen and sophomores can be back with us if it works out."
Signed to MLB
From this year's team, Vinny Santarsiero and Blair Lasko, both pitchers, signed free agent contracts during the summer. Santarsiero with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lasko the Minnesota Twins. Both will be playing at the Minor League level to start their professional careers.
Previously, Ben Heller, who played for the Rafters in 2012 was called up by the New York Yankees. He was with Cleveland up until the trade deadline which was Aug. 1. Heller had been playing triple-A ball with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in Pennsylvania.
Next year
If the rest of the league hasn't noticed the Rafters, they know now after winning the NWL championship. Co-owner Vern Stenman made a comment at Saturday's welcome home rally that no team has ever repeated as champions.
After a few weeks away from the daily grind of the season, it's something the franchise has in the back of their minds.
"So many things, including having a little luck, need to go your way to win the league championship once," Fanta said. "It will be even more difficult next year with the league going to 20 teams.
Next summer a yet to be named team in Bismark, N.D., will join the North Division and Fond du Lac, which will play its games on the Marion College campus will join the South Division.
"We'll still be in the South Division which is nice," Fanta said. "In early October at the league meeting we'll know a lot more about how everything will shake out with two more teams in the league."
Mark Massoglia: 715-424-7309 or mark.massoglia@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @markmazzy.
