The Flivvers led early in both games but inexperience and some early season rust showed both on the mound and in the field. Kingsford has had very limited time outside and is fielding a much younger team this season after graduating several seniors from last year’s district champion squad.

“We got down here got to play, which is what we wanted to do,” Flivvers head coach Joe Kriegl said. “We’re young, and I thought we hit the ball hard as heck. And we had two home runs today. We hit one all last year. So we hit the ball as hard as we ever have.”

Kingsford only returns three seniors this year in Jack Kriegl, Jacob Deuter and Cole Baciak. The rest of the varsity roster is juniors, with the team expected to bring up a rotation of some of the junior varsity players throughout the season. Saturday’s line-up cards featured a handful of underclassmen, including a few freshman making their prep debuts.

“That’s the thing, we have young arms,” Kriegl said.

Kingsford junior Bradlee Bottesi makes a running catch in center field during Saturday’s doubleheader at Appleton East. Bottesi had three highlight-reel worthy grabs in center for the afternoon.

Sophomore Domenic Frederickson got the call on the mound in the first game, one of three pitchers used in the game. Doenier took the hill to start the second game, with three more pitchers used after that.

The Flivvers jumped to 2-0 lead in the first game, but saw the Patriots tie it in the bottom of the first and take command from there. Kingsford attempted a final inning rally, heading into their final at-bat down 8-4 before Doenier connected for his two-run shot off a high fastball that rode the wind up and over the fence. Junior Jack Spreen brought in another run with a grounder to the right side, but a soft line out ended the game before Kingsford had a chance to complete the comeback.

In the second game, Doenier was sharp on the mound, not allowing a hit over his two innings of work while the Flivvers built a 6-0 advantage through three. But Appleton rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the third and it went back and forth from there. The hosts led 8-7 after 4 innings. Kingsford put up a five spot in the top of the fifth, the big blast coming when Miller went yard with a no doubter to left, a three-run shot.

Kingsford added two more runs in the sixth including a RBI hit by Kriegl, but the 14-8 lead vanished in the bottom half with the Patriots scoring eight times in the frame to go ahead for good.

Kingsford totaled 29 hits in the two games. Junior Noah Trulock, batting clean-up, had five hits for the day. Kriegl and junior Bradlee Bottesi each collected four hits with an RBI apiece. Spreen finished with three knocks including a double and three RBI. Junior Logan Grondin also had three hits with one RBI.

Freshman Luke Rice had a pair of singles in his prep debut and scored three runs, and freshman Colin Olsen recorded his first prep hit.

“We wanted to come down and play some baseball, get on a field,” Kriegl said. “It would have been nice to win, but ultimately we got 14 innings of baseball. We got to see a lot of pitches. We saw a lot of balls hit around. We made some nice plays but also missed a few here and there. But overall, we’re playing baseball finally and there is a lot to be encouraged about.”

Kingsford is hoping to open its home schedule this week, depending on conditions. Negaunee is on the schedule for today with Houghton anticipated for Thursday.

2026 Kingsford Baseball

SENIORS: Jack Kriegl, Jacob Deuter, Cole Baciak. JUNIORS: Bradlee Bottesi, Jack Spreen, Michael Cook, Caleb Erickson, Brock Flaminio, Noah Trulock, Devin Miller, Logan Grondin, Jonah Doenier. JUNIORS: Cooper Kreski, Alex Larson, Carter Steber, Domenic Fredrickson, Chace Jungles. FRESHMEN: James VanDusen, Luke Rice, Colin Olsen, Gino Santoni, Nathaniel Rahm, Cooper Myers, Colton Lord, Andrew Tomasoski, Wyatt Jungles, Ian Hensley.