ALL-GNCSOFTBALL - Hraby, Leonhardt make All-GNC team; 3 Raiders on 2nd team

ALL-GNC SOFTBALL

Four of the Medford Raiders who earned a 2024 All-Great Northern Conference softball award also earned one last spring.

The fifth completed a meteoric rise to a unanimous first-team selection.

Rylee Hraby and Zayleah Leonhardt are both unanimous picks to this year’s All-GNC team, while Finley Arndt and Tori Konieczny return as second-team choices and Chelsea Gebauer joins them, moving up from honorable mention in 2023.

Leonhardt, a sophomore, is two for two with first-team worthy seasons while Hraby’s team MVP season certainly drew notice in the conference and beyond.

The efforts of these five were the foundation for a 2024 season that ended with a 13-11 overall record and an 8-4 mark in the conference, good for a three-way tie for second with Antigo and Lakeland. Under head coach Virgil Berndt, sophomores and juniors did most of that work, fueling hope the Raiders will continue to succeed in at least the next couple of seasons.

After filling an infield role last spring, Hraby emerged as one of the GNC’s top pitchers and offensive threats at the top of Medford’s batting order.

In conference play, Hraby had a pitching record of 8-3 with a 1.72 earned run average that ranked third behind GNC co-Player of the Year Saylor Timmerman of Lakeland (0.61) and Ava Busse of conference and WIAA Div. 2 sectional champion Mosinee (0.34). Her eight wins tied for second with Timmerman and Antigo’s Bethany Lewis and her 86 strikeouts ranked third behind Timmerman (177) and Busse (92).

In 65 GNC innings, Hraby allowed 16 earned runs.

Offensively, Hraby tied for third in GNC rankings with 18 runs scored, tied for second with 15 runs batted in, was fourth in hits with 20 and ranked fifth in batting average at .500 with 20 hits in 40 at-bats. She tied for fifth with two home runs, both of which came in the same game.

Overall in 24 games, Hraby hit .414 (36 for 87) with eight doubles, four triples, two homers and 22 runs batted in. Hraby drew 15 walks while striking out only nine times. She had a 13-8 pitching record with a 2.45 earned run average in 23 appearances. In 120 innings, Hraby struck out 188 hitters, walked 50 and allowed 91 hits and 64 runs, 42 of which were earned.

Her stock certainly rose in the middle of April when she threw a one-hitter in a 7-1 win over Lakeland, no-hit Northland Pines in five innings and added two shutout innings at Rhinelander, totaling 23 strikeouts with one earned run allowed. At the plate in that week, she was 11 for 14 with two homers, three triples, two doubles and 12 runs batted in.

Also memorable was a 4-0, 11-inning win on April 25 where Hraby struck out 20 batters and allowed just three hits.

Leonhardt took over as Medford’s top catcher and excelled there, plus she remained a fixture in the number-four spot in the team’s batting order.

In conference play, Leonhardt hit .371 (13 for 35) with five doubles and a triple. Overall, she was Medford’s top power hitter, finishing with a .405 average (30 for 74) that included eight doubles, a triple and three homers. She drove in 28 runs, a team high.

Leonhardt finished with an outstanding .995 fielding percentage with one error in 211 total chances with almost all of them coming from behind the plate. She had 16 assists.

Leonhardt got off to a fast start, recording multi-hit games in six of Medford’s first seven contests, including two hits and two RBIs in Medford’s first two league games against Tomahawk and Antigo. She was two for four with two doubles and four RBIs in the April 16 13-0 win at Pines and had two-hit games in the rematches with Tomahawk and Antigo in May.

In non-conference play against Reavis, Ill. on April 6, Leonhardt was three for four with a double and five RBIs, including the go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning of a 10-6 win.

Leonhardt and Hraby are part of a 12-member first team that includes Timmerman, Mosinee’s Taelyn Jirschele and Busse, Antigo’s Tristin Arlen, Tomahawk’s Scout Stromberg and Carly Huelskamp of Northland Pines as unanimous picks. Mosinee, who is 28-1 and playing at this weekend’s WIAA Division 2 state tournament, adds senior Amber Gonzalez, junior Maggie Woller and freshman Addyson Henrich to the first team. Antigo’s Emma Beck is the 12th member.

Jirschele was the named to co-Player of the Year with Timmerman after hitting .644 in league play (29 for 45), scoring a league-high 27 runs and adding 15 RBIs. Arlen led the league in hitting at .649 (24 for 37).

Mosinee’s Cody Brietzke, a star pitcher at Tomahawk in his high school days, shared the Coach of the Year award with Lakeland’s Whitney Furtak.

Konieczny started for Medford at first base for the second straight spring and hit .350 in GNC play (14 for 40) out of the number-three spot in the order. That included a double, a triple and eight RBIs. she scored 14 runs. Overall, Konieczny’s average was .317 (26 for 82) with 15 RBIs. She led the team with 22 runs scored. At first base, she had just two errors in 107 total chances for a .981 fielding percentage.

Konieczny had six multi-hit games, four of which came in GNC play. She had three hits in a 15-8 win over Northland Pines on May 9 and in a 14-12 loss to Merrill the following day. She had three hits in the Reavis win as well.

Arndt made a big defensive move this year, going from rightfield as a freshman to shortstop and filled the number-two spot in the order. She ranked second in the GNC with nine stolen bases and hit .341 (14 for 41) in 12 GNC games with two doubles, eight RBIs and 13 runs scored. Overall, Arndt hit a solid .379 (33 for 87) and ranked second on the team with her 33 hits. She hit five doubles, drove in 16 runs and scored 20 runs. Arndt had a .443 on-base percentage, just behind Hraby’s .495 and Leonhardt’s .476.

Arndt had nine multi-hit games, including a four-for-four game against defending state runner-up New London on April 13. She was two for three with three runs scored and two driven in during a 9-3 win at Tomahawk in the GNC opener April 9 and was two for four with two doubles, two runs driven in and two scored in the April 16 win at Pines. She had two hits off Busse in a 7-2 loss at Mosinee May 14.

Gebauer also made a defensive move, going from leftfield last year to third base this spring. Hitting fifth in the batting order, Gebauer posted a .368 batting average in league play (14 for 38) with a homer, 10 RBIs and eight runs scored. Overall, Gebauer hit .284 (23 for 81) with two homers, two doubles, a triple and 16 runs scored. She also stole six bases.

She had multi-hit games in five GNC games, including a three-for-three day at Rhinelander April 18 with five RBIs. She had two hits in the extra-inning win at Lakeland and had two hits and two RBIs in the home win over Pines May 9. She homered off Busse in the May 14 loss at Mosinee and went three for four with three RBIs, three runs scored, a homer and a triple in a 14-9 loss to New London in Rhinelander’s Hodag Dome March 22.

Zayleah Leonhardt First Team

Tori Konieczny Second Team

Chelsea Gebauer Second Team

Finley Arndt Second Team