Bleeding Baseball

While Riley Spetz used to be the smallest player on the field, his gritty mentality has helped him excel in baseball at Sevastopol High School and beyond. Spetz plays for the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, the Green Bay Storm and the Egg Harbor Indians, where he’s 8-0 from atop the mound.

As he played Little League, Riley Spetz was an easy one to pick out. There were the huge first basemen, the tall, lanky young pitchers, and then Riley, the smallest kid on the diamond fielding groundballs like a veteran.

If the smallest frame on the field was not enough to set him apart from his fellow PBI youngsters, his ear-to-ear smile made him impossible to miss. Those days came long before his statistics were ever counted, though. Oh, how things have changed for the baseball addict.

For starters, Spetz now stands six-feet-tall, but a change in physical stature hasn’t really meant much to him as a ballplayer.

“I’ve always kinda had to play big, and usually ended up playing bigger than I was,” Spetz said. “I’ve always played with a bit of an attitude on the field. I am real gritty with the game.”

Although chicks may “dig the long ball” and flame-throwing pitchers are paid many millions of dollars, “Small Ball” is one of the most prevalent strategies in the game – and one that helped Spetz beyond the realm of Little League.

As of July 1, Riley Spetz had a batting average of .515 with only Stewart Larsen from Sister Bay topping him with an average of .607.

Spetz became a ruthless hitter, not necessarily of power, but of multiple singles, doubles, and triples in every game. Starting as a freshman infielder for Sevastopol High School in 2008, Spetz gained experience before becoming a Packerland All-Conference player his remaining three seasons as a Pioneer.

He won the batting title with a stunning average of .598 as a junior before taking the Player of the Year honor as a senior. With more than enough baseball accolades to please any ballplayer, Spetz then took off for Stevens Point to continue playing the game he loves.

Spetz, who competed for a starting position all season long, tallied 35 appearances and 26 starts for the Pointers squad.

After his freshman season at Stevens Point Spetz is back in the county, and the kid with the big grin that used to be towered upon by teammates and opponents is now a dominating force in the Door County League (DCL) for the Egg Harbor Indians. When DCL pitching mainstay Rob Schartner was injured early this season, Spetz was thrown into the starting pitching role. To say that he has exceeded expectations would be an understatement.

Spetz is 8-0 from atop the mound for the Indians while also batting .515. He is among the league leaders in innings pitched and strikeouts, leaving few statistical categories out of his reach.

This summer, barely anything has been out of his reach for Spetz, who is also playing baseball for the Green Bay Storm and working full-time for the city of Sturgeon Bay.

“Yeah, I’m pretty busy,” Spetz said. “I’m working plenty of hours and playing plenty of ball.”

If there were any more hours in the day, he would probably find another team to suit up for – baseball is simply his passion.

“It has definitely always been a (Spetz) family game,” he noted. “I definitely bleed baseball a little bit.”