Athens wins back-to-back D-4 State titles

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Athens Fighting Bluejays came into the 2018 season as the reigning D4 champs and the consensus favorite to repeat, losing only one senior off of last year’s squad. In fact, Athens was even ranked in our Preseason Power 25.

But this year’s title run was anything but a cake walk. The Fighting Bluejays had to do just that this postseason and fight through a ton of adversity, most notably the heartbreaking loss teammate Tucker Westfall in early June to a deadly UTV accident. On top of that nearly the entire squad was dealing with a bout of food poisoning in Appleton.

Despite the hurdles the climb, Coach Coker kept his Fighting Bluejays on track to win their second straight D4 title, 13-10 over Thorp.

The game itself was in the hands of Athens most of the way after a big six run fourth inning that broke a 2-2 tie. Thorp continued to claw back and get themselves within striking distance, but costly defensive miscues kept letting Athens pull away.

For Athens, Marshall Westfall had the big day at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a triple, two RBI and two runs scored. Seth Coker drove in three on two hits, and Javon Penny had a perfect 3-for-3 day with two runs scored.

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