Tigers win 10 straight

Stratford off to great start this season

By Casey Krautkramer

Stratford’s varsity baseball team on Tuesday won its 10th straight game since losing its season opener at Mosinee this spring.

Tigers fourth-year head coach Marshall Lehman has a good mixture of experience and young talent on his squad this season. The team’s top returners are senior infielders and pitchers Camden Daul and Dillon Kirsch, senior catcher Gavin Kirsch, junior outfielder and pitcher Braeden Schueller and junior first baseman and pitcher Jackson Ormond.

Stratford’s top newcomers to the varsity squad who are expected to make big contributions to the team’s success this season are sophomore infielder and pitcher Brady Schmidt, sophomore third baseman and pitcher Henry Zaleski and sophomore centerfielder Cole Tichy. “We have a younger team this year than in the past, so we are looking for some big contributions from a variety of younger players,” Coach Lehman said.

The team’s younger players have certainly stepped up to the plate thus far in 2022.

Schmidt tossed a gem against Au- burndale on Tuesday, by only giving up three hits while not walking a batter in his six innings of work to gain the win; he struck out six Eagles. Daul pitched the final inning for the save after striking out two of the hitters he faced; he didn’t surrender a hit and walked one batter.

Freshman second baseman Jack Tubbs led Stratford in hitting against Auburndale by going two for four with an RBI, while Ormond was two for three with an RBI. Stratford will face Auburndale again this Thursday, May 5, but this time it’s a home game.

Stratford easily beat Athens, 11-0, on the road Monday as Zaleski held the Bluejays to only two hits; he only walked a pair of batters while posting five strikeouts.

The Tigers’ top three hitters in their lineup did a lot of damage against the Bluejays. Leadoff hitter Dahl batted three for five with three RBIs and two runs scored, No. 2 batter Tubbs was two for five with an RBI and pair of runs scored and No. 3 hitter Ormond was two for four with a walk, an RBI and a run scored.

Athens junior Connor Sheahan was the losing pitcher. Senior Cooper Diedrich and sophomore Ty Johnson were the only Bluejays to get a hit against the Tigers’ Zaleski. The Athens baseball squad has a 3-4 record thus far this season.

Stratford’s baseball team snapped Marathon’s four-game winning streak last Thursday, by sweeping the road doubleheader against the Red Raiders.

The Tigers beat the Red Raiders, 7-5, in the first game of the twin bill. Schmidt earned the pitching win in relief of starter Dillon Kirsch and Daul pitched the final two innings for the save. Marathon senior Jaden Koeller was the losing pitcher.

Ormond led Stratford at the plate with three RBIs and Dillon Kirsch added a pair of RBIs in the victory. Sophomore cleanup hitter Grant Warren paced Marathon with a pair of RBIs in the loss.

Stratford also downed Marathon, 4-2, in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader. Daul pitched the complete- game win for the Tigers while Kyle Hollenbeck took the completegame pitching defeat for the Red Raiders. Gavin Kirsch led Stratford with a pair of RBIs. Sophomore Tyler Underwood and junior Hector Pinter collected an RBI each for Marathon.

Coach Lehman is obviously excited about his team’s pitching staff this season, as evidenced by its recent dominance against tough conference opponents.

“We feel we have a good group of pitchers back this season, led by Camden Daul and Dillon Kirsch,” he said. “Our coaching staff feels one of your team’s strengths this year is our pitching depth. We also have juniors Braeden Schueller and Jackson Ormond, along with sophomore Brady Schmidt and Henry Zaleski that we are excited about getting some innings this year. Each of them have been on the mound coming up through our youth program and has good command of a few different pitches.”

Stratford is currently the only undefeated team in the Marawood South Conference this season. The Tigers have the upper advantage so far in winning their third straight Marawood South Conference championship. Stratford won an outright conference title in 2019, which is the same year the Tigers won their first state championship in school history. There was no baseball in 2020 due to COVID- 19 and last season Stratford shared the conference title with Edgar.

“Our coaching staff has worked very hard over the past years and we are starting to see good consistent groups of baseball players coming up each year,” Coach Lehman said. “We have a good core group and have some talented young players coming up that we are excited about. We will have to work hard as a team to get to the top of the conference, but I think this team is ready for that challenge of competing with some other very good Marawood teams this year.”

Stratford also swept its regularseason series against Marathon last season, but the Red Raiders avenged those defeats with a 10-0 road victory against the Tigers in the WIAA Division 3 regional championship. Marathon ended up also winning the sectional title to advance to the state tournament. Now that Stratford just finished sweeping its regular-season series against Marathon again this season, the Tigers are hoping for a reversal of fortunes against the Red Raiders in the playoffs.

“Baseball is one of those sports that if you are having an off day and the other team’s pitcher is on his ‘A’ game, you are going to have a tough time winning,” Coach Lehman said. “Last year was a tough way to end the season, but that just shows how tough our conference is. We will use last year for our staff and players to learn from, but we are spending our time this year working on what can make this year’s team better. This includes having a better mental approach at practices and games and being sure to stay consistent. We look forward to another fun and competitive baseball season battled with some talented conference opponents.”

DILLLON DEALS AGAINST MARATHON- Stratford senior Dillon Kirsch was the starting pitcher in the team’s first game of a road doubleheader on Thursday against Marathon. He received a no decision in Stratford’s 7-5 victory.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER