READY TO GET GOING
MEDFORD BASEBALL PREVIEW
Holes to fill, but Raiders expect to contend
With 10 letter winners back and eight seniors taking up a good chunk of the varsity roster, the Medford Raiders start the 2023 baseball season in a good spot as far as experience is concerned.
But the Raiders also come into the year knowing they lost some special talents and depth with the graduations of seven letter winners last spring, so they are understandably anxious to see how this year’s lineup evolves.
The start to the season has been a slow one with practice being limited to indoor work for the most part. The Raiders are fortunate to have gotten some time outdoors, facing Pittsville in a scrimmage held in Babcock March 27 and going 1-1 Saturday in the abbreviated High School Baseball Challenge on the turf in Mauston. An attempt to play Merrill on the turf at Wisconsin Rapids on Tuesday was canceled.
It’s not certain if Medford will open Great Northern Conference as scheduled April 10 and 13 against rival Mosinee, who ended Medford’s 22-6 season last June 1 in an epic, 9-8, nineinning regional final. But whenever the Raiders do hit the field regularly, 19thyear head coach Justin Hraby is confident they’ll be ready and competitive.
“I think it will be an exciting year,” Hraby said Friday. “With a lot of guys coming back, a lot of good experience, I’m excited to see how it plays out. We
also have some guys pushing up. Obviously it’s going to come down to the simple things with this team. The ability to throw strikes, the ability to make simple plays and then put the ball in play. I think the talent is there. If we can do that we’re going to win a lot of games.”
The scrimmage against Pittsville, who typically fields solid Division 4 baseball teams, showed Hraby some strengths the team has with pitching, defense and offense.
Logan Baumgartner is the leader of the senior class. The standout, who will be a rare 12-letter male athlete for Medford at spring’s end, fills the roles pitching ace, shortstop and numberthree hitter in the batting order. A unanimous All-GNC pitcher and second-team infielder last spring, Baumgartner was 8-3 with a 2.00 earned run average in 2022 with 56 strikeouts and just eight walks in 56 innings and he hit .404 with 11 doubles, two homers and 31 runs batted in.
“I think he’s going to have a good spring,” Hraby said. “He’ll be one of the best pitchers in the conference. Any time he pitches we’ll have a chance to win.”
Medford is counting on senior Ty Metz to build upon the improvements he made last spring and summer. He’s elevated himself to the number-two pitching spot and will start in rightfield when he’s not pitching. Metz was four for 11 last year in a limited offensive role, but had a 2.10 earned run average in 10 innings pitched and he looked even better at times during the summer American Legion season. Metz and Baumgartner are two of the team’s four captains.
“Ty had a really good summer and even into winter and spring he’s grown into our number two guy on the mound,” Hraby said. “If he can put it together, he’ll be pretty good. He almost throws as hard as Logan.”
Miles Searles is a third senior captain. He opens the season as Medford’s centerfielder and Hraby sees him as a good contact hitter and good base runner somewhere in the bottom half of the order. Senior Tucker Kraemer will fill a bigger role this year being able to play second base as well as outfield positions and gives the Raiders even more speed.
Gavin Fuchs steps up into a larger role in his senior year as a pitcher who is expected to eat some innings in the heavy stretches that are likely to come this spring. Alex Dittrich is back to likely fill an outfield/base running role, and Jacob Eckert and Peyton Gilles step into full-time varsity spots this year for the first time. Eckert has gotten early looks at third base and in the outfield and had three RBIs in Medford’s season-opening 10-9 win over Spooner on Saturday.
“Jacob Eckert has looked really good,” Hraby said. “He’s played some third base. I put him in the outfield in the scrimmage and he made a great catch. I could put him anywhere. Peyton Gilles has a chance to play. He didn’t play summer ball, but he worked hard all winter. He was in that batting cage all the time. He’ll play some outfield.
“It’s a great group of seniors,” he added. “All eight of these guys stuck it out all the way through. It’s a good group of guys, good baseball players and great kids.”
Junior Tanner Hraby is the team’s fourth captain. Already a two-time letter winner and a second-team All-GNC infielder last spring, Hraby will certainly be a valuable middle infielder, starts the year in the number-two spot in the batting order and will be counted upon to provide some pitching innings behind Baumgartner and Metz.
Braxton Weissmiller and Max Dietzman are back and expected to fill big roles. Weissmiller was an honorable mention outfielder in the GNC last spring, mainly due to his .413 batting average, which was accomplished with 31 hits and he drove in 18. This season, he gets the first shot to catch as Medford looks to replace the huge hole left by fouryear starter Aiden Gardner.
The left-handed hitting Dietzman is back at first base and brings some power potential after hitting .300 as a sophomore with six doubles and nine RBIs.
“Braxton will catch this year,” coach Hraby said. “He’ll take that leap I hope and he’ll get better as the year goes on behind the plate. But he can flat out hit. He’ll bat fourth behind Logan and hopefully he’ll get a lot of opportunities to drive runs in. Max will hit right behind Braxton. Max is a different dude this year. He’s chiseled from wrestling, his feet are so much better. Coach (Matt) Krueger has been working with him at first base to play a little lower. He’s going to have a good year offensively and defensively. He’s improved so much.”
From there, the varsity candidates from the junior class are newcomers. Ben Doriot and Logan Kawa may rotate some into the catching position. Kawa is back playing baseball for the first time in several years and Hraby said he’s picking things up quickly. Nick Steliga is a smart player who has a chance to play some infield and pitch a little. Carson Carbaugh and Jack Wojcik are looking to make their mark as well.
Parker Lissner is back after a solid freshman season. He’s been entrusted with the leadoff spot in the batting order and figures to get a lot of infield time at third and second base. He hit a respectable .280 last spring. Charlie Gierl, Evan Wilkins and Hayden Strebig are names fans also may hear during the year. Wilkins is another speedy outfielder and Strebig, a freshman, gives Medford a left-hander on the mound. He got a oneinning save Saturday against Spooner.
“Right now, he’s probably our fifthbest pitcher,” Hraby said. “I’m excited to see what the future brings for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s our one or two pitcher next year. That’s the goal with him, give him a little bit this year and hope he takes the lead next year.”
Medford’s defense looks solid, especially on the infield when Baumgartner and Hraby are together.
“Defensively I’m pretty excited,” Justin Hraby said. “We have a ton of speed in the outfield and a lot of experience on the infield. Replacing Aiden Gardner is probably our biggest hurdle right now, but we’ll get there. We have pitchers who have pretty good command. That helps. We have to figure out that fourth infield spot when Bummy or Tanner pitches. Otherwise we’ll be fine because we have guys who are versatile. Having Tucker Kraemer who can play both infield and outfield helps.”
The losses of Gardner and All-State star Caleb Guden, not to mention the on-base prowess of Seth Mudgett, do take some punch out of the offense, but there are ways to make up for that. Hraby noted the most important part of getting the offense going the last two seasons was figuring out how to best use the bottom of the batting order. That will be part of the early-season evolution of this year’s team too.
“I think we’re going to be OK,” Hraby said. “I think we lose some power, some slugging, but I think as far as contact goes, these kids have always been able to put the ball in play and execute fairly well. They just find ways to score runs. I think you’re going to see more of that this year.”
In the Great Northern, there is no question who the pre-season favorite is. After making it to the WIAA Division 2 state tournament last June, defending champion Mosinee is ranked second in D-2 in the pre-season coaches poll and brings back four players who gained a first-team All-GNC award last year in Keagan Jirschele, Davin Stoffel, Gavin Obremski and Taylor Lemanski. Jirschele is an outstanding pitcher and infielder and has outstanding speed. Garrett Shupe is a good number-two pitcher.
Medford split with the Indians in the regular season and was one strike away from beating them in the post-season. A surprise 1-0 loss to Northland Pines dropped the Raiders to 10-2 in the GNC and prevented them from sharing the title with Mosinee.
“Lakeland has a new coach, Antigo has a new coach,” Hraby said “You just never know. New coaches come in, cultures change and all of a sudden they play to their capability. Pines has their big lefty (Landyn Hoeft, who shut Medford out). I imagine we’ll see him one game. Tomahawk had a lot of numbers last year, so I would guess they’ll be better. Their JV played right with our JV last year. Rhinelander lost a lot, but you can’t take anything for granted. You can’t just worry about Mosinee.” The D-2 post-season will look a little different as the WIAA has done away with the small regional brackets and moved to larger sectional half-brackets. That means not only will usual suspects like Antigo, Abbotsford Colby, Lakeland, Rhinelander, Merrill or Pines be in play early on, so will teams like West Salem, who is ranked 20th in the pre-season coaches poll, Gale-Ettrick Trempealeau, who is predicted to battle West Salem and Viroqua for the Coulee Conference title and Sparta and Tomah. Fifth-ranked Altoona hosts the sectional tournament on June 6. “If we can get to sectionals, I think we have a chance,” Hraby said.
