GNC MVP, ALL-STATE FOR MILLER

ALL-GNC SOFTBALL

Raiders put nine on All-GNC softball teams

If the 2022 All-Great Northern Conference softball awards look familiar to fans of the Medford Raiders, there is a good reason for it.

Medford’s seven repeat award winners all landed in the same spot in the voting as they did a year ago, including junior pitcher Martha Miller, who earned her second straight Player of the Year award. She shares this year’s award with Antigo senior Sam Swartz.

In all, nine Raiders earned an award, the same number as last year. The accolades follow a 19-7 season where the Raiders shared the conference title with Mosinee and Antigo. All three teams swept the four teams below them in the standings during the regular season then split their games with each other to finish 10-2.

The Raiders, however, wound up going the farthest in the WIAA postseason, beating Antigo 2-1 in the Division 2 regional final before falling 2-0 to eventual state qualifier New London in a May 31 sectional semifinal.

Medford, who was 12-0 in GNC play last spring, won successive conference championships for the first time since ending Lumberjack Conference play with titles in 2006-2008. Antigo’s title was the program’s first in GNC play and its head coach, Sandi Robrecht, was named the GNC Coach of the Year. Mosinee, meanwhile, added to its vast collection of GNC softball trophies. The Indians have earned at least a share of the title in 12 of 13 seasons.

Miller, senior Laurissa Klapatauskas and junior Allie Paulson are Medford’s repeat All-GNC first team representatives. Seniors Rynn Ruesch and Makala Ulrich and junior Morgan Huegli are back on the second team and senior Katie Brehm earned honorable mention for the second straight spring. She was joined by new honorees Madisyn Pilgrim and Hope Faude, both juniors.

Also announced just before The Star News went to press on Wednesday, Miller was named to the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association All-State first team for Divisions 2 and 3. Miller got honorable mention in 2021.

Miller had another stellar season, though it was cut 2.5 weeks short by a hamstring injury in May. She returned to pitch a 12-strikeout, one-hit gem in the May 26 regional final with Antigo and threw well in the loss to New London, who just found some holes and good fortune in a two-run, five-hit sixth inning.

While going 7-1 in league play, Miller led the GNC in earned run average at 1.07, allowing eight earned runs in 52.1 innings. Her 100 strikeouts ranked second behind Lakeland’s freshman standout Saylor Timmerman (169), who also threw almost 25 more innings. GNC teams collected just 20 hits off Miller in the regular season and walked only eight times. She threw five inning no-hitters against Tomahawk on April 28 and Northland Pines on May 3.

Overall, Miller posted a 13-3 record in 17 starts, collecting four shutouts and posting an impressive 0.89 earned run average. In 102 innings pitched, she allowed 41 hits and 21 runs, 13 of which were earned, walked 15 and struck out 199, an average of 13.7 strikeouts per seven innings.

Offensively, Miller hit .391 in GNC games (nine for 23), scored 10 runs and drove in seven. Overall, she hit .409 (18 for 44) with two triples, a homer against Appleton East, 10 runs batted in and 17 runs scored. She was 10 for 10 in stolen base attempts.

Miller is one of 18 first-team picks on the Division 2-3 All-State squad. It is an impressive list that includes Division 2 State Player of the Year Savannah Serdynski of D2 state runner-up Jefferson, Naleyah Bork and Rylie Murphy of D2 state champion Freedom and D3 State Player of the Year Holly Lowenberg of state champion Poynette.

Leading up to her All-State honor, Miller was a first-team All-District 2 selection, joining 17 other players from the Great Northern, Central Wisconsin, North Eastern, Bay, Packerland and East Central conferences. Swartz is on that list and got honorable mention in the All-State vote. Antigo’s Laura Burkhardt and Tomahawk’s Maddie Moreno earned honorable mention for All-District.

Klapatauskas, who shared team MVP honors with Miller, had a big year at the plate out of the number-three spot in the batting order and capably filled the pitching duties in Miller’s absence.

She hit .297 in league play (11 for 37) with three doubles and eight RBIs and tied Paulson for the team lead with 14 runs scored. Overall, she upped those totals to a .346 batting average (28 for 81) with two big home runs, six doubles, a triple and tied for the team lead in RBIs with 18. Her 21 runs also led the team. She was 10 for 10 in stolen base attempts.

When she wasn’t playing first or third base, Klapatauskas went 3-1 in the circle in league play with a 2.71 earned run average. She struck out 28 batters and walked nine in 20.2 innings, allowed 19 hits and 12 runs, eight of which were earned. Klapatauskas threw a four-inning nohitter in a 15-0 win over Rhinelander on May 11. Overall in 12 appearances, including eight starts, Klapatauskas was 5-4 with a 2.98 earned run average. In 54 innings, she allowed 51 hits and 29 runs, 23 of which were earned, while striking out 64 and walking 27.

The season highlight for Klapatauskas was WIAA regional week when she was the winning pitcher and belted the go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning of a 5-2 semifinal win over Lakeland on May 24 and hit the walk-off solo homer leading off the bottom of the seventh to beat Antigo in the final.

Led by the pitching of Miller and Klapatauskas, Medford easily led the GNC in team defense, allowing just 1.8 runs per league game. That number was 1.2 before Mosinee got nine runs in the GNC finale on May 12.

Paulson hit out of the two-spot in the batting order for most of the year and had another solid season at shortstop for the Raiders with just eight errors in 54 total chances.

In league play, Paulson hit .438 (14 for 32) with 10 runs batted in, two triples, a double and 14 runs scored. Overall, she finished at .356 (26 for 73) with 19 runs scored, 17 driven in, two doubles and two triples. She tied for the team lead by drawing 12 walks and also led the Raiders with 17 stolen bases in 18 attempts.

Paulson had three-hit games in a 12-1 win at Tomahawk April 21, a 5-3 win over Merrill on May 6, a 12-0 win over Edgar on May 7 and 15-0 win over Rhinelander on May 11.

Those three Raiders are joined on the All-GNC team by Swartz, who was 9-2 with a 1.65 ERA, Burkhart and Makala Beck of Antigo, Moreno, Timmerman, and pitcher Adeline Strejc (9-2, 3.36 ERA), catcher Maria Valls Raya, Amber Gonzalez and Mikah Keller of Mosinee. Gonzalez and Timmerman were the GNC hit leaders with 19 each and Gonzalez shared the lead with teammate Alanna Bembenek with 19 runs. Keller scored a league-high 16 runs. Strejc led the league with 19 RBIs. Mosinee led the GNC by scoring 10.4 runs per game in league play, while Medford was second at 8.4.

Ruesch, who moved from left to rightfi eld defensively, hit .375 in league play (12 for 32), led Medford with 11 GNC RBIs and hit five doubles, a triple and a homer against Northland Pines. She also scored 12 runs. Overall in 26 games, Ruesch hit .319 (22 for 69), tied Klapatauskas for the team lead with 18 RBIs and six doubles and hit two homers, adding one against Appleton East in a 5-2 April 9 win. Her 19 runs tied Paulson for second on the team and tied Paulson for the team lead by drawing 12 walks. She did not have an error in seven chances.

Ruesch had three hits in the 9-5 loss to Mosinee on May 12 and drove in three runs against Appleton East and the homer in a 13-3 win against Pines was a threerun blast.

Ulrich did her best work offensively in GNC play, hitting .304 (seven for 23) with a triple and five RBIs. She had five sacrifices to lead the team. Overall, she finished with a .232 batting average (13 for 56) with two triples, two doubles, six RBIs and a team-high eight sacrifices. Primarily an outfielder last year, she took over as Medford’s top choice at third base and had an .837 fielding percentage with 30 assists and six putouts in 43 total chances. She stole eight bases during the year on eight attempts and had four RBIs in the 15-0 win over Rhinelander.

Huegli was errorless in 16 chances in centerfield and hit .306 for the year (19 for 62), including a .321 clip in GNC play (nine for 28). She drove in 13 runs, seven of which came in league play and hit a double against Rhinelander. She scored 16 runs, 10 of which came in GNC play.

Huegli drew nine walks and was hit by three pitches and had a .419 on-base percentage. Starting the year in the lower end of the lineup, she became Medford’s leadoff hitter when Miller went down. She had three hits in the 13-3 win over Pines and scored three runs in the 15-0 win over Rhinelander. Huegli had eight steals in eight attempts.

Brehm was one of four players to hit two home runs in GNC play. She hit those two days apart. The first was at the Hodag Dome in Rhinelander May 10 in a 17-0 win. She hit a three-run blast in the May 12 loss to Mosinee. She hit three doubles and drove in 11 runs while batting .175 this season (10 for 57). For the most part, Brehm got time at first base, especially when Klapatauskas was pitching.

Pilgrim won the GNC’s batting average title, going nine for 17 (.529) in 24 plate appearances, which barely qualifi ed her for that statistic. Filling the designated player role much of the year, Pilgrim hit three doubles and a homer against Rhinelander in GNC play and hit .312 overall (15 for 48) with three doubles and six RBIs and 10 walks drawn.

Faude, Medford’s second baseman, hit .231 in league play (six for 26) with three RBIs and .254 overall (15 for 59) with seven RBIs and seven runs scored. She drew six walks, laid down two sacrifices, hit a sacrifice fly and stole five stole bases. She had two errors in 45 chances for a .956 fielding percentage.

Klapatauskas added one more highlight on Tuesday, playing for the Division 2/3 White team, coached by Medford’s Virgil Berndt and Ron Fisk, at the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Senior All-Star Games.

Laurissa Klapatauskas First Team

Morgan Huegli Second Team

Allie Paulson First Team

Katie Brehm Hon. Mention

Rynn Ruesch Second Team

Madisyn Pilgrim Hon. Mention

Makala Ulrich Second Team

Hope Faude Hon. Mention