Baseball Game Preview: Wittenberg-Birnamwood Chargers vs. Bonduel Bears

Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Bonduel are an even 5-5 against one another since April of 2018, but likely not for long. The Chargers are taking a road trip to square off against the Bears at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. Wittenberg-Birnamwood is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last eight games.

Wittenberg-Birnamwood's hitters will try to repeat the strong performance they gave on Saturday, when they got past Auburndale's usually-dominant pitching crew. The Chargers were the clear victors by a 17-6 margin over the Apaches. The result was nothing new for the Chargers, who have now won nine contests by six runs or more so far this season.

Zandyr Barke made a splash no matter where he played. He tossed three innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in six consecutive appearances. He was even better at the plate, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with two stolen bases and three runs. That's the most runs he has posted since back in April.

Chris Sippl

Hits (Career)

05/10/25 vs Auburndale	2
04/28/25 vs Weyauwega-Fremont	1
04/17/25 @ Iola-Scandinavia	1
04/12/25 @ Manawa	1

In other batting news, Wittenberg-Birnamwood let Milo Salvesen and Chris Sippl run wild. Salvesen went a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBI, while Sippl went 2-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and one RBI. Those two hits gave Sippl a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Owen Dickman, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run.

Bonduel had taken Pacelli down for two straight games at home, but that winning streak came to an end on Saturday. The Bears fell just short of the Cardinals by a score of 8-7. That's two games in a row now that the Bears have lost by just one run.

Wittenberg-Birnamwood pushed their record up to 15-2 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Bonduel, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 7-7.

Wittenberg-Birnamwood skirted past Bonduel 3-1 in their previous meeting back in April. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Chargers since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.