MEDFORD SOFTBALL - Raiders outhit by state champs; T-Birds get key early GNC win
MEDFORD SOFTBALL
After a 5-0 start, Medford’s softball team hit some bumps in the road in what might be the toughest week of its 2025 schedule, dropping four of five, including Tuesday’s 11-1 six-inning loss to Stevens Point Pacelli in a chilly home opener.
The two-time defending WIAA Division 5 state champions, who bring back most of last year’s team in an attempt to win this year’s D-4 title, hit the ball hard with five of their 13 hits going for extra bases.
A night after Medford head coach Virgil Berndt thought his team’s bats were coming back alive, the Raiders were held in check by Pacelli pitcher Amelia Martini, who allowed eight hits and only struck out three. But she also limited the walks, allowing one, and the Cardinals’ defense was on point, committing just one error, which came on their first chance of the game.
Martini also had the game’s biggest hit, launching a three-run home run in the third that put Pacelli up 5-1.
“Everything we hit hard was either at them or went foul,” Berndt said. “I felt like we really put together some good at-bats (Monday) night and that’s why I was really looking forward to this one.”
Kaylin Yenter gave Pacelli a quick lead, blasting a long solo homer in the top of the first. The third of three second-inning hits was an RBI single by Kaydyn Nelson.
Medford cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second. Addison Brahmer’s slap hit to the left side resulted in an infield hit. She stole second base before Chelsea Gebauer beat out another infield single with one out. Ava Hartl bounced a base hit through the right side to score Brahmer. Rylee Hraby’s walk with two outs loaded the bases, but Martini got Finley Arndt to ground one sharply right at shortstop Kelsea Giese.
Martini’s homer followed back-to-back bloop hits by Madelyn Pionek and Kathryn Ilkka that found grass on the left side of the outfield. The Cardinals got two more in the top of the fifth with an RBI double by Yelter and a sacrifice fly from Martini.
After two-out singles by Zayleah Leonhardt and Tori Konieczny did not lead to runs for Medford in the bottom half, Pacelli (7-0) finished things.
Nelson led off by reaching on an error. With two outs, Ilkka singled, Yenter reached on an error that scored Nelson. Martini capped a two-for-four outing with an RBI double to left that Gebauer almost made a diving catch on but the ball popped out as she hit the ground. A double by Ava Tess drove in the two runs needed to put the 10-run rule into play.
Medford tried to extend the game to the seventh, putting runners on the corner on hits by Kailyn Haenel and Hartl with one out, but Martini got Jolie Steliga to pop up on the infield and Hraby to ground out.
Hartl and Konieczny both had two of Medford’s eight hits. Hraby allowed 13 hits and seven earned runs while striking out seven and walking one.
The game featured two of this winter’s four Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association inductees with Berndt and Pacelli’s Ann Molski.
Medford (6-4) is back at home today, Thursday, hosting Tomahawk at 5 p.m. in Great Northern Conference play, where the Raiders are 0-1. The team heads to Antigo for a key GNC matchup Tuesday and then hosts Northland Pines on April 24.
Medford 11, Merrill 1
Medford stopped a three-game losing streak Monday in Merrill, using two big early offensive innings to roll to an 11-1 win in five innings.
Hraby had a big day at the plate, going three for four two with a double, a triple and three RBIs and, in the pitching circle, she struck out seven Merrill hitters while allowing just two hits and two walks.
The offense started immediately with Hraby tripling off Merrill starter Mackenzie Herdt to open the game. Arndt was hit by a pitch and Leonhardt looped a single to score Hraby with the game’s first run. Konieczny walked. A wild pitch scored Arndt, Brahmer walked and, with two outs, Leonhardt’s courtesy runner, Steliga, scored on a wild pitch.
A five-run third made it 8-0. With two outs and two on, Gebauer had a key hit to keep the inning alive, singling in both runners. Hartl drove in Gebauer with a double to left and, after Ruthie Steinman walked, Hraby lined a two-run single the opposite way to leftfield.
Gebauer singled in a run in the fourth. After Merrill got its run in the bottom of the fourth, Medford put the game away in the fifth. Steinman walked and scored on Hraby’s double. Konieczny’s two-out double drove in the final run.
Gebauer was two for three with three RBIs. Brahmer was two for two and drew two walks. Medford outhit Merrill 10-2.
Two Woodside losses
On Saturday morning, Medford was dealt a pair of losses at the Woodside Sports Complex in Mauston.
First, the Raiders were shut out 5-0 by pitcher Peyton Hall and the Campbellsport Cougars. Hall only struck out three batters, but Medford also got just three hits and one walk as the Cougars played errorless defense behind her.
Hraby struck out 12, but Campbellsport also collected eight hits and controlled the game after getting out to a 3-0 lead through two and a half innings.
Arndt singled in her first two at-bats. Those were Medford’s only hits until Steliga got a bad-hop infield single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
Emma Batzler had the big hit for Campbellsport, a two-run single in the third that made it 3-0. She added an RBI single in the fifth and leadoff hitter Emma Muraski singled in the final run in the sixth. Four of Campbellsport’s runs were earned. Hraby only walked two in six innings of work. Medford had three errors. Haenel struck out one in a onetwo-three seventh. Haenel got the start in game two against Byron, Minn. and didn’t have much luck as the Bears jumped ahead 7-1 and went on to win 9-4.
The Bears got four of those runs in the first inning. Tallie Behrens led off with a bloop double down the leftfield line and that was a sign of how the game would go as the wind played havoc with some fly balls hit to the outfield. The Bears hit three doubles in the inning and there was an error.
Medford finally got its first run of the day in the bottom half on Leonardt’s RBI single, but Byron, located just outside of Rochester, Minn., got a two-run triple from Mackenzie Steele in the second. She scored on Kaydence Fjerstad’s groundout.
Hartl doubled in Konieczny in the bottom of the fourth. Byron pushed ahead 9-2 in the top of the fifth and Medford responded with two in its half. Hraby walked and went to third on Arndt’s double to right. An infield hit by Leonhardt scored Hraby. After two fielder’s choices, Gebauer got a runscoring infield hit. Leonhardt had two of Medford’s seven hits and drove in two. Hraby pitched 5.1 innings, striking out 13 while allowing a walk, four hits and two earned runs.
Tallie Behrens was the winning pitcher for Byron. She struck out five, walked two and allowed three earned runs. Steele was three for four, drove in three runs and scored three times.
Lakeland 3, Medford 1
Medford had been 6-0 against Lakeland in GNC play since University of Arkansas recruit Saylor Timmerman took over the T-Birds’ pitching duties in 2022, but that run ended Thursday when Timmerman and Lakeland’s defense held the Raiders to two hits in a 3-1 game played in Minocqua.
Timmerman struck out 10 and didn’t walk anyone. She had the edge over Hraby, who didn’t pitch poorly, striking nine and allowing five hits. She did walk five, with most of those coming early on a cold, gray afternoon. One big hit was basically the difference.
All of the game’s scoring took place in the fourth inning. In the top half, Hraby bounced a single up the middle, moved to second on a wild pitch and, after an Arndt grounder, went to third on a passed ball. She scored on Leonhardt’s groundout for a 1-0 lead.
But in the bottom half, Moriah Louis led off for Lakeland by driving a double to the gap in the left-center. Lani Frisch bunted Louis to third. After Marlee Strasburg walked, Lakeland’s numbernine hitter, Rayna Hella, was able to pull a double to the leftfield corner, to drive in both runners and give Lakeland the lead. Malia Newport struck out for the second out, but Ali Timmermann snuck a ground ball through the middle for a base hit to score Hella for a key additional run.
Arndt got just enough of a Saylor Timmerman pitch leading off the seventh, dumping it just over the head of Hella at first base for Medford’s second hit of the game. She went to second on a wild pitch. But Timmerman won the battle against a couple of Medford’s top batters as Leonhardt’s hard-hit grounder went right to Hella, Konieczny’s soft liner also went right to Hella and Timmerman got Brahmer swinging.
Hella had two of Lakeland’s five hits.
Medford’s Zayleah Leonhardt puts the softball in play and this fourth-inning groundout produces the team’s only run Thursday in a 3-1 loss at Lakeland. The Raiders had just two hits against Lakeland’s ace Saylor Timmerman. BRETT LABORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES
