Wilsonville's Cole Weber (left) and Brody Cushing have given the Wildcats plenty of reasons to celebrate in 2025, opening their season at 21-0. (Miles Vance/Wilsonville Spokesman)

Streaks have always been iconic parts of baseball.

There’s Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, the 1916 New York Giants’ 26-game winning streak and Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive games played streak of 2,632.

Now, the Wilsonville baseball team has entered the fray.

As of Thursday, May 8, the second-ranked Wildcats have won a school-record 21 straight games.

The Streak kicked into gear with the team’s season opener – a 5-2 non-league home win over West Albany on March 18 – and hasn’t let up since, most recently including Wilsonville’s 8-7 non-league win at Aloha on Thursday, May 8.

“We’re working as a team really well,” said Wilsonville junior pitcher/first baseman Colby Kosderka (he’s hitting .375 and carries a 6-0 pitching record with a 0.558 ERA). “A lot of guys are just trying to pass the torch to the next guy. … We’ve just had a real good team aspect to it.”

“(The key has been) playing free. Playing as one team together and not as individuals is really helping us,” said Wildcat senior right fielder Connor Johnston (.226 with five doubles, nine RBIs, 21 runs and nine steals). “It’s just having each other’s back. The next man up mentality is really helping.”

“I feel like we’re doing pretty good as a team,” said senior center fielder Drew Hall (.508 with five doubles, one triple, three homers, 16 RBIs, 29 runs and 17 steals). “We’ve got some guys who weren’t doing as good as they thought they should have at the start of the season, but they’re getting hot now, and this is the perfect time of the season to get hot.”

“(The key is that) there’s no ego in it and everyone’s just kind of fulfilling their role as best they can,” said senior catcher Mark Wiepert (.607 with eight doubles, three triples, two homers, 38 RBIs, 24 runs and 18 steals). “It’s fun, and when you trust everyone, good things happen.”

As of May 8, the Wildcats – led by first-year head coach Jason Rasco and assistants Dom Enbody, T.J. Drake, Tracy VavRosky, Adam Krause, Trevor Antonson and Duston Schenk – sit atop the Northwest Oregon Conference with a 10-0 record.

As great as all that is, the Cats know that their biggest tests lie ahead; they close out the regular season with two-game series against No. 10 Hood River (6-3 in NWOC play, 11-8 overall), No. 6 La Salle (9-0 in NWOC play, 16-4 overall) and No. 4 Canby (9-0 in NWOC play, 16-3 overall).

“It’s a dangerous spot being (21-0),” Wiepert said. “It’s easy to get complacent in these situations, but every day, we have routines and processes and nothing changes so it’s really just an effort level. If, as a team, we can hold each other accountable, then we will continue to be the best we can be.”

“We could be 27-0 going into the playoffs and get upset,” Hall said. “Anything can happen so it’s just (taking it) one game at a time and don’t get complacent.”

“At practice, we need to lock in and make sure we don’t get too lackadaisical,” Kosderka said. “We just need to make sure we don’t get too lazy and stay aggressive.”

While the Wildcats have been perfect in the win-loss column so far – they’re outscoring opponents by an average of 10-2 during The Streak – their school’s modest history in baseball is helping them stay humble. Since Wilsonville opened back in the 1994-95 school year, the Wildcats’ baseball program has never won a state championship and made their lone title-game appearance back in 2011 (the Cats dropped a 6-3 decision to Sherwood).

“All these wins right now, they just lead up to playoffs,” Kosderka said. “So we’ve just got to keep fighting and win one game at a time.”

“We’re just trying to go one game at a time,” Johnston said. “This is a hard upcoming week. We’ve got seven hard games and we’re starting 0-0 so (the winning streak) doesn’t really matter.”

Indeed, the combination of program history, challenging schedule and the team’s grounded nature has allowed the Wildcats to enjoy The Streak without worrying about it.

“We try to stay away from it and just focus on the next game,” Hall said. “Like our coaches said, we’re 0-0 going into the next seven games and these will probably be the seven toughest of the year.”

“I only figured out it was 19 (straight wins) at lunch today, so it’s not a huge thing,” Wiepert added after the Wildcats’ win over Putnam. “We’re just looking to play our best game every day.”