Warren is a Woodchuck
Baseball star seizes his opportunity
By Casey Krautkramer
Brock Warren, a 2021 Marathon High School graduate, is savoring his unique opportunity to play baseball for the Wisconsin Woodchucks this summer.
“It’s been a tremendous experience just getting to be around all the great baseball players who are from around the country; it’s been a dream come true to play for the Woodchucks,” he said on Monday afternoon before the team won a home doubleheader against the Lakeshore Chinooks.
The Woodchucks play their home games at historic Athletic Field in Wausau. They compete in the Northwoods League which is one of the premier collegiate wooden bat summer leagues in the country.
He is currently in the midst of finishing the three-week contract he signed with the Woodchucks to help the ball club during the remainder of the season that concludes this Saturday, Aug. 13. The team’s last home game is at 6:35 p.m. this Friday, Aug. 12, against the Madison Mallards. He was playing his third summer with the Everest Merchants, an adult amateur baseball team, before receiving the call from the Woodchucks.
Warren is six feet, three inches tall and 205 pounds. He was one of Division 3 Ripon College’s top three pitchers as only a freshman this past spring, but he’s a relief pitcher for the Woodchucks. He is throwing his entire arsenal of pitches consisting of the fastball, curveball, changeup and slider during his pitching relief appearances for the Woodchucks.
“It’s difficult, no doubt, to come out of the bullpen because you need to be ready to pitch whenever your name is called,” Warren said.
Warren has been up to the challenge of pitching against opposing Northwoods League hitters, many of whom play Division 1 college baseball. He has a 1.35 Earned Run Average while pitching 6-2/3 innings in four games. He’s only surrendered five hits, four walks and one run while striking out seven batters.
Woodchucks manager Corey Thompson is the pitching coach at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Warren is gleaning whatever pitching advice he can from him this summer.
Warren was Marathon High School’s ace pitcher in helping the Red Raiders make an appearance in the 2021 WIAA Division 3 state tournament. During his first season pitching for Ripon College, he had a 3-2 record as a starting pitcher in 10 games with a 4.91 ERA.
When he wasn’t pitching for the Red Hawks, Warren played either first or third base in the field or was the team’s designated hitter. He had a .294 batting average for the Red Hawks with 40 hits in 136 plate appearances as either the cleanup or No. 5 hitter in the lineup.
He is appreciative that his parents, Steve and Pam Warren, and his younger brother, Grant Warren, and many of their friends from Marathon have attended Woodchucks games to watch him pitch this summer.
When Brock Warren was asked if he hopes to get drafted by a Major League Baseball team in the future, he responded, “For now, I just want to to play well in fall ball and have a good spring baseball season at Ripon.”
