Baumgartner is District Player of Year, 2nd-team All-State

WBCA ALL-STATE AWARDS

Hraby gets honorable mention as utility player

First-team All-Great Northern Conference baseball selections have grown into bigger awards for Medford’s Logan Baumgartner and Tanner Hraby.

Both were recently named to the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s 2023 All-North Central District teams, with Baumgartner making the list as an infielder and Hraby making it as a utility player. In fact, Baumgartner was named the North Central District’s Division 2 Player of the Year, marking the third straight year a Raider has won that award. Caleb Guden won it the past two springs.

On Monday, it was announced that Baumgartner is one of the association’s five All-State second-team infielders for his performance during the 2023 season, while Hraby is one of seven utility players to gain All-State honorable mention.

Hraby added one more honor as he was named to the 2023 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s Academic All-State team. Players must be a junior or senior to be eligible, must receive first- or second-team all-conference recognition, their coach must be a WBCA member and the student must carry a grade point average of 4.0 or higher.

Baumgartner, the GNC Player of the Year, led the GNC with a .541 batting average in league games (20 for 37), tied Mosinee’s Davin Stoffel for the GNC lead in hits and led the GNC with 22 runs batted in.

His two GNC home runs tied him for second behind Mosinee’s Taylor Lemanski, who hit three. Both of Baumgartner’s GNC homers came in a 21-1 win at Lakeland on May 12, when he was the winning pitcher and drove in seven runs. One of the homers was a grand slam. Overall, he hit .489 with a school-record 46 hits in 94 official at-bats, including 13 doubles, two triples and four homers. His 38 RBIs also was a single-season school record. He had a second grand slam during a 14-7 non-conference win over Auburndale on April 28. He drew 12 walks, struck out only nine times.

Defensively at the shortstop and pitching positions, Baumgartner had a .930 fielding percentage with six errors in 86 total chances and was involved in 12 double plays.

While he didn’t make the All-District or All-State teams as a pitcher, he was an impressive 10-2 with a 0.97 earned run average in 57.2 innings pitched. Baumgartner tied Medford’s single-season record for wins and just missed the school’s single-season record for ERA at 0.94. He struck out 76 batters, walked 13, hit six and allowed 38 hits and 16 runs, only eight of which were earned.

Tanner Hraby, who played second base and shortstop and pitched on occasion, tied for fourth in the conference with 16 hits and ranked third in runs scored with 18. He stole eight bases to tie for fifth in league play. He hit .364 in GNC games (16 for 44) with four doubles, a triple, a homer in a 10-0 win over Pines and 13 runs batted in. Overall, he hit .391 (35 for 114) with two homers, adding one in a 7-2 non-conference win over Pittsville on May 23, and 21 RBIs. He was, by far, the team’s leader in runs scored with 37, one short of Jeff Johnas’ 2006 school record.

Hraby took over the leadoff spot early in the season and posted a .496 on-base percentage boosted by 15 walks and being hit by five pitches. He struck out just 11 times in 114 plate appearances.

He was charged with four errors in 77 total chances in the field for a .948 fielding percentage and went 1-1 in 15 pitching appearances with three saves, 33 strikeouts and a 2.86 earned run average in 36.2 innings pitched.

Joining Baumgartner as second-team All-State infielders are senior Brady Belisle (.417 batting average) of Division 3 state champion St. Croix Falls, senior Tyler Butina (.452) of Division 2 state qualifier Jefferson, junior C.J. Trask (.453) of Oak Creek and senior Austin Wienke (.423) of Division 1 state champion Whitefish Bay.

Along with Hraby the honorable mention DH/utility players are senior Boone Kirst of Ashwaubenon (.329), senior Caydon Lomas of Wauzeka-Steuben (.578, 112, 1.39 ERA), senior Riley Peterson of Verona (.403, 4-2, 1.29 ERA), senior Zander Rockow of Eau Claire Regis (.500), junior Mason Roell of West Bend East (.492) and senior Aiden Schenk of Janesville Craig (.314, 8-1, 1.65 ERA).

The first-team All-State infielders are Division 2 State Player of the Year Alex Alicea (.500) of state runner-up St. Thomas More, junior J.D. Dix (.452) of Whitefish Bay, senior Camden Kuhnke (.474) of Division 1 state runner-up Hortonville and senior Jake Schaffner (.578) of Janesville Craig. The first-team All-State DH/ utility players are Division 1 State Player of the Year Payten Jibben, a junior from Oak Creek (.481, 8-0, 0.95 ERA) and senior Lucas Mille of three-time Division 2 state champion Denmark (.524, 11-0, 0.76 ERA).

The North Central District includes the Great Northern, Bay, Eastern Cloverbelt, Central Wisconsin Large, Central Wisconsin North, Central Wisconsin South, Marawood North, Marawood South, Marinette and Oconto, Northern Lakes and Wisconsin Valley conferences.

The 2023 All-District team has five GNC representatives with two Raiders and three members of co-champion Mosinee –– Stoffel, Lemanski and Keagen Jirschele. Wisconsin Rapids outfielder Brennan Huber was the All-District player to land on the All-State first team. Baumgartner was the All-District firstteam player to land on the All-State second team. D.C. Everest pitcher Nathan Langbehn and Coleman utility player Will Bieber got on the All-State third team.