A hot time in the Dells for local All-Stars
WFSCA ALL-STAR GAMES
Other than playing in some of the most intense heat they’ve ever experienced on a field, the 27th annual Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association’s Senior All-Star Games provided memorable experiences for this year’s local representatives Laurissa Klapatauskas of Medford and Tychelle Duellman of Gilman.
During the event, held Monday and Tuesday, June 13-14 at Wisconsin Dells, Klapatauskas played for the Division 2/3 White team, which was led by the Medford Raiders’ coaching duo of Virgil Berndt and Ron Fisk. Duellman played for the Division 4/5 Green squad, led by longtime Hurley head coach Jim Kivisto.
Both teams won once and lost once in their two games on Tuesday, a day where temperatures nearly reached 100 degrees and there’s no telling how hot it got on the artificial turf surfaces the games were played on at the Woodside Sports Complex.
“It was a lot hotter on the turf than it was up in the stands,” Duellman said. “It was very hot. Probably the hottest I’ve played in.”
“It was really hot. Oh my gosh, it was crazy,” Klapatauskas said.
As always, the event was not so much about wins and losses as it was allowing the senior all-stars to showcase their talents –– for many, it’s their last time –– and create new friendships in the time they are together, which amounts to about 30 hours. The coaches and players report on Monday morning for meetings then a brief practice. From there, players spend some time together off the field before the two-hour allstar banquet in the evening. Then it’s game day on Tuesday.
“It went really good. It was a lot of fun,” Klapatauskas said. “There were a lot of teammates from my travel team over there, so it wasn’t like I was stranded there by myself. Having Ron and Virg coaching was cool. I got to meet a lot of people.”
“It was fun just talking to everybody and listening to some of the stories they had about playing softball and their seasons,” Duellman said. “We had some girls whose teams had just played in the state tournament and they talked about that. It was cool just to get to know the girls.”
For Berndt, this was his third coaching assignment in the all-star series and his second as a head coach. “You spend a little time with the girls on the first day and it’s hard to get to know them in that short time, but as the second day goes on and as you get into the games, you get to know them a little better,” Berndt said. “It seemed like they had a good time. It was a lot of fun.”
An All-Great Northern Conference performer at first base and pitcher in her senior season, Klapatauskas saw most of her time in her two all-star games at first base, got an inning in leftfield with no action there and even got to pitch an inning in the second game, a 7-3 loss to the Division 2/3 Green team. She got a hit in both games. In a 4-2 win against the Red team, she singled against Baldwin- Woodville ace Morgan Smetana, a Winona State recruit. In the loss to the Green team, she had a memorable at-bat against GNC rival Sam Swartz of Antigo, drawing a walk at the end of a lengthy atbat. Klapatauskas hit a seventh-inning walk-off homer against Swartz on May 26 to give Medford the WIAA Division 2 regional championship.
“Hitting went well,” she said. “I had a couple of singles, I felt like I hit the ball hard. I had a really long at-bat against the Antigo pitcher. It was at least 10 pitches and I ended up walking. Pitching wasn’t bad. My catchers were really good. It was funny because they’d say things like how they could hear the ball travel because of how hard I throw or how it was so cool to watch the spin.”
Berndt said the plan was to pitch Klapatauskas for two innings, but the game got cut short due to a time limit.
“Laurissa did well,” he said. “She got big hits in both games. She played all over at first, third and left. She pitched well when she got in there, really dominated.”
“The pitching there was really good,” Klapatauskas said. “That was some of the best pitching I’ve ever seen. Girls were throwing curve-rises, others were throwing really good change-up. Some seemed like they were hitting the upper 60s. It was pretty fast.”
Duellman, who earned second-team and honorable mention All-Eastern Cloverbelt Conference awards as Gilman’s centerfielder the past two springs, said she made contact in most of her at-bats and reached base twice.
“I did pretty good,” she said. “Hitting was a little different. Most of the pitchers were a lot faster than what I was used to seeing, but it went OK. I played in the outfield and that went OK. We rotated every inning in the outfield, so I played in left, center and right.
“I got seven or eight at-bats,” she added. “I was doing my slap hitting. I hit right to third base three times. Twice I got out, but once I reached safely. I struck out once, and then once I got on a dropped third strike.”
Her Green team lost by two in its opener to the Gray team and then put everything together in a solid win over the Black squad in its afternoon game. Joining Duellman on the Green team were Thorp’s Trysta Leech and Alexa Hanson, who gave her two familiar faces to be with, along with Daelynn Rhoades, Zoe Schmitz and Emma Gordon of Division 5 state runner-up Barneveld, Zoey Vaara and Annika Patrick of Northwood, Elizabeth Krawze of Laona-Wabeno and Olivia France, Haley Nyquist, Kylee Hewitt and Gracie Maslanka of Hurley.
Klapatauskas’s teammates included Ella Wyskochil and Elena Barnes of New Berlin West, Abby Heitman of St. Francis, Annika Lord of Dodgeville, Julia Sitzberger of Lomira, Nicole Eiden and Sydney Jastromski of Amherst, McKenna Eichmeier and Bristol Foytik of Brillion and Sydney Swiggum, Lucy Dahlk and Morgan Brummer of Mt. Horeb.
“It was a neat experience,” Klapatauskas said. “Going down on my own, I had to bust out of my shell a little bit. Everybody was friendly and outgoing. It was super fun meeting so many new people.”
This fall, Klapatauskas is headed to Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa to begin pre-optometry studies and join the Duhawks’ softball team. “I’m nervous but excited,” she said. “I’ve been snapping with some of my teammates. I met one at orientation. I really like my coach, he’s really cool. I’m looking forward to the whole experience.”
Duellman is off to UW-Eau Claire to pursue a degree in elementary education. She said it was a thrill to represent Gilman in her final prep softball appearance. Duellman was the only senior on an extremely young Pirates squad that went 7-12 this year.
“I was honored,” she said. “It was definitely a surprise when (head coach Brian) Phelps entered my information and then he told me I had made it. I was really happy. It was really cool.
“This season was different. Last year Addy Warner was our only senior too. We had some of the same girls, but it was still different. I had to set a good example for the younger girls because I was the one they were all looking up to. It was fun, but different.”
Gilman’s Tychelle Duellman scores a run on a wild pitch.
Above photo: Members of the Divisions 2/3 White allstar softball team included (front l. to r.) Julia Sitzberger of Lomira, Sydney Swiggum of Mount Horeb, Nicole Eiden of Amherst, Abby Heitman of St. Francis, Annika Lord of Dodgeville, Morgan Brummer of Mount Horeb, (back) head coach Virgil Berndt of Medford, Lucy Dahlk of Mount Horeb, Laurissa Klapatauskas of Medford, Bristol Foytik of Brillion, Elena Barnes of New Berlin West, Ella Wyskochil of New Berlin West, McKenna Eichmeier of Brillion, Sydney Jastromski of Amherst and assistant coach Ron Fisk of Medford.
Right photo: Members of the Divisions 4/5 Green allstar softball team, led by Hurley head coach Jim Kivisto (back row, second from right) included (front l. to r.) Haley Nyquist of Hurley, Daelynn Rhoades of Barneveld, Emma Gordon of Barneveld, Alexa Hanson of Thorp, Annika Patrick of Northwood-Solon Springs, Zoey Vaara of Northwood-Solon Springs, (back, third from left) Tychelle Duellman of Gilman, Kylee Hewitt of Hurley, Trysta Leech of Thorp, Olivia France of Hurley, Elizabeth Krawze of Laona-Wabeno and Gracie Maslanka of Hurley.SUBMITTED PHOTOS
