COACHES ASSOCIATIONS’ ALL-STAR GAMES - A memorable week as an All-Star
COACHES ASSOCIATIONS’ ALL-STAR GAMES
Five days spent with some of Wisconsin’s top athletes from the high school class of 2024 will certainly be something Medford’s Tanner Hraby won’t soon forget.
Hraby participated in back-to-back All-Star events last week, playing with the West All-Stars in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s 40th annual event Friday and Saturday at Oshkosh and playing with the White All-Star team in the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association event June 24-26.
“It was awesome,” Hraby said Monday. “It was definitely a big deal. I’ve watched these games the last couple years and it became a goal to play in them. It was lot of hard work to be able to get that chance. It is such an honor. It really tops off the years we had. For my senior year, it was a great ending.”
In the baseball games, the West went 2-1 to place second in the round-robin style event behind the 3-0 East squad. The East outpitched the West 2-1 on Friday night, but the West won twice on Saturday, beating the North 7-2 and the South 6-1.
Hraby was used as a centerfielder and second baseman by the West’s coaching staff, which included Nate Ahlberg of Northwood-Solon Springs, Brent Blegen of Hudson and Steve Warren of Marathon. Over the three games, Hraby was hitless in four official at-bats. He drew two walks, one in each game Saturday, and scored a run in the win over the North.
“It was a lot of fun,” Hraby said. “There were a lot of good players there. It was fun to play with them. I got to play quite a bit, probably more than I even expected. Every game I played at least half of it.”
In the loss to the East, Hraby started in centerfield. He got one at-bat and it came against two-time WBCA Division 1 State Player of the Year Payten Jibben of Oak Creek. Hraby made contact but popped out. The West drew even at 1-1 in the bottom of the first as Mosinee’s Keagen Jirschele walked and eventually scored on an infield hit by Eau Claire Memorial’s Leo Lauscher.
But the East took the lead right back in the top of the second on a solo homer by Oak Creek’s CJ Trask and that was the end of the scoring in a game highlighted by strong defense and pitching. The game was shortened to six innings to beat incoming rain.
Noah Marschke of Stevens Point, the WBCA’s North Central District Division 1 Player of the Year, pitched well in his three innings, but took the loss. Rice Lake’s Easton Stone pitched three shutout innings in relief.
The West’s power was the difference on Saturday. In the win over the North, Eddie Peters, a first-team All-State player fromLa Crosse Aquinas, homered to break a 1-1 tie in the top of the second. Two batters later, River Falls catcher Chase McQuade hit a two-run bomb that made it 4-1.
Hraby drew a walk in the fourth to put two runners on for Peters who drove another home run over the fence for a 7-1 lead that was more than enough for the pitching duo of Easton Bobb of Chippewa Falls and Bradyn Bezanson of Hudson to hold on to.
In a dugout full of talent, Hraby said Peters was the teammate that impressed him the most.
“He was really good and just super nice,” Hraby said. “He’s the total package. He really stood out to me. I knew who he was but I didn’t know that much about him.”
In the West’s win over the South, Hraby was part of the go-ahead fifthinning rally that erased a 1-0 deficit. Jirschele and McQuade singled to start the rally and Hraby walked to load the bases. Stone was hit by a pitch to force in a run. A wild pitch brought in the goahead run.
In the sixth, McQuade’s three-run homer was followed by a monstrous solo blast from Stone to put the game out of reach.
“We had some big boppers that’s for sure,” Hraby said.
Hraby made two clean plays on ground balls hit to second base in the seventh.
While he didn’t get a hit, Hrabywas happy to draw a couple of walks and make contact.
“In the first game, I batted ninth and faced Payten Jibbers, the state Player of the Year the past two years,” Hraby said. “I’m the number-nine hitter and he throws me three straight curveballs, which I was not expecting. I was happy to just put the ball in play. He was good. In the second and third games, the guys I faced were all pretty good. It was fun to see that kind of pitching. I was glad not to strike out. That was one of my goals.”
Hraby, who will head to UW-River Falls in the fall to help get that school’s baseball program revitalized, felt the weekend gave him a taste of what he’ll see at the next level.
“I think so,” Hraby said. “I’d actually be surprised if the pitching will be this good sometimes.”
While looking forward to college baseball “big time,” Hraby’s goal for the rest of the summer is to help Medford’s American Legion Post 147 baseball team get back to the state tournament a month from now.
Basketball team falls
In Thursday’s basketball All-Star event at JustAGame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells, Hraby scored nine points and had two rebounds, one on each end of the floor, in the White team’s 142-113 loss to the Black team in the Division 2 contest.
Hraby played about 21 minutes of the 48minute game, starting the second and fourth quarters and was three for eight overall from the field. Hemadeone of two free throws with 12.4 seconds left in the game. Hraby made two of six 3-point attempts.
That culminated a stay of two-plus days in the Dells for the All-Stars.
“It was fun, very fun,” Hraby said. “We met the team, had a little practice, had a couple scrimmages and a couple team meals, so that was fun. We scrimmaged the D-1 White and Black teams We had some down time at the hotel too, so we went to the water park and stuff.”
The 12-man White team featured several players Hraby and the Medford Raiders have played against in recent years, including Mosinee’s Landon Thomer, Onalaska’s Evan Anderson, La Crosse Central’s Henry Meyer and New Richmond’s Reis Hidde. Wausau East’s Isaac Rozwadowski was also on the team, whose head coach was Wausau East’s Dan Garrett.
“I liked him,” Hraby said of Garrett. “A lot of energy, a good guy. It was fun playing for him.”
As for playing with former rivals, Hraby said, “they’re all great guys once you get to know them. Then you talk about past games and whatnot. It was definitely fun.”
The game was close through the first quarter and a half. Rozwadowski’s 3-pointer put the White team up 13-11. The White fell behind by six but closed the gap to 25-24 on an Anderson score with two seconds left in the quarter. Hraby entered at the 7:58 mark, tracked down an offensive rebound almost immediately and then later was long on his 3point attempt during a shift of nearly five minutes.
Hraby missed a left-wing 3 to start the second quarter. Thomer got the rebound and found a cutting Hraby who certainly wanted that missed layup back, but soon after, he drilled a triple just left of the top of the key over a good contest from the Black’s Sawyer Schipper to pull the White within 29-27.
“It felt really good just to get going and see one go through the hoop,” Hraby said.
Thomer got a rebound hoop, Grafton’s Michael McNabb scored, Thomer made two free throws following a steal and Anderson got a steal and slam dunk to put theWhite up 35-31. After Mount Horeb’s Nick Vorwald scored four points for the Black, Anderson’s tip-in gave the White its last lead at 37-35. The Black went on a 17-2 run to go up 52-39 and the White never recovered.
It was 59-45 at the half. Hraby attacked from the right side and got a well-defended short shot to go, making it 65-47. He missed a 3 and then sank one from the left side to make it 71-51 before coming out after a nearly four-minute shift to start the half.
“We turned it over too much and didn’t play any defense really,” Hraby said. “We struggled on the defensive end. We didn’t make many shots either, that didn’t help.”
As the second half progressed and with the outcome pretty much decided, the game turned to true all-star game mode with each player actively seeking their shots and dunks with the Black’s Isaiah Allen of Milwaukee Lutheran getting three fourth-quarter slams, including one off a perfect lob from West Salem’s Tamarrien Henderson and another impressive windmill dunk.
Allen and 6-5 Ari Nimani of New Berlin Eisenhower scored 22 points apiece to lead the Black. Nimani scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter. Vorwald scored 19 points and Schipper, who is from Stoughton, added 17, 14 of which came in the second half.
Anderson led six players from the White team who hit double digits in scoring with 17 points. James Adams of Milwaukee Vincent scored 15 and James Seagraves of Monroe and Joey Butz of River Falls scored 13 each.
“It’s fun,” Hraby said. “You know everybody canshoot, everybody candrive. It’s nice to have those guys who can drive and I can just stand on the 3-point line and wait. I was just going to be ready to shoot at all times. I was just waiting for that kick out and being ready to shoot.”
The 47th annual event resulted in $20,000 donations to Camp Hometown Heroes, Camp Wawbeek/Easter Seals of Wisconsin, Garding Against Cancer, the MACC Fund and Ronald McDonald House Charities of EasternWisconsin.
Jackson Blomberg of Rib Lake was selected to play in the Division 5 boys game but did not attend. Nick Mechelke, a 2001 graduate of Gilman High School and the head coach at Wittenberg-Birnamwood, was the head coach for the Division 3 North girls team, which defeated the South 63-48 on June 26.
Tanner Hraby takes a 3-point shot during Thursday’s All-Star basketball game at Wisconsin Dells. MATT FREY/THE STAR
Tanner Hraby readies for potential action at second base Saturday at the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association All-Star event. SUBMITTED PHOTOS
One of Tanner Hraby’s West teammates for the All-Star baseball weekend was Abbotsford- Colby’s JV Castillo. The two are planning to play baseball at UW-River Falls.
Tanner Hraby applies defensive pressure against the Black team’s Logan Rindfleisch, a 6-5 forward from state champion Wisconsin Lutheran during the first half of Thursday’s Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Division 2 All-Star Game. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
