PESHTIGO — The Peshtigo Bulldogs softball team is having a truly special season. They went a perfect 23-0 in the regular season and took home the Packerland conference crown.
Led by six seniors, as this team is entering the playoffs they are taking things day by day to get down to Madison and compete for a Division 3 State title.
“I think that this year, we're so much hungrier – we want to be that team on the top,” said senior Allison Peters.
“We were hoping to do it,” senior pitcher Bethany Ahrens said of going undefeated. “We came in with the goal of a conference championship and we got that. Now we’re just working towards our next goals.”
If you attend a Bulldogs practice, they’re just out there enjoying each others company.
“Our team is tight,”said head coach Matt Lacoursiere. “We play relaxed. We know we’ve got eachothers backs, the kids are great. As you can tell, they’re loose.”
The Bulldogs have a few Bulldogs on the mound in Ahrens and Peters. Peshtigo’s pitching staff has only given up 29 earned runs all season, for an ERA of 1.48 on the season.
“The pitching is contagious,” Lacoursiere said. “When one pitcher is rolling and the other one grabs the ball and she doesn't want to get shown up, so they compete against each other.”
“The pitching definitely relieves some stress from the hitters, because we know that things are going to fall together and we’ll be fine,” said Peters. “The hitting – knowing we have great hitters is just awesome for pitchers to be able to produce.”
Both pitchers are also captains, who’ve had a lot of success with the program, which includes helping the team get to state in 2021.
“Since they’ve been in our program, I believe our record is 68-5,” said Lacoursiere. ”They’ve really led through the years and they’ve just worked extremely hard to get us where we are.”
As for their hitting, they average a whopping 11 runs per game. They can rake at the plate. As they’ve outscored opponents 254-39 all year.
“Our mentality is we like to hit,” Lacoursiere said. “We like to hit extra base hits. After that first time through the lineup – we got a lot of confidence at the plate.”
And now the team knows they need to buckle down to get to where they want to be..
“The truth in the matter is, everybody is undefeated right now. It’s postseason. The records go out the window. We talk about it all the time. The past is the past and we got to look forward to what’s coming at us.”
Peshtigo, who earned a one seed in the playoffs, will host 8 seed Clintonville Tuesday in a Regional Matchup.
