MEDFORD SOFTBALL PREVIEW - Raiders start spring with high expectations

MEDFORD SOFTBALL PREVIEW

Anticipation for the 2025 season is running high with the Medford softball team, so much so the Raiders are making sure the games get started on time.

With a varsity roster consisting of 13 returning letter winners, the Raiders see themselves as Great Northern Conference contenders and as Division 2 tournament contenders when the WIAA post-season rolls around.

But none of those hopes will be realized without hard work and doing things right. The Raiders are jumping right into competition and testing their potential lineup options with three games in two days in the Danny Mac Softball Classic inside Rhinelander’s Hodag Dome.

From there, it’s off to Florida for a quick excursion Saturday through Tuesday where the Raiders will get varsity and JV games Sunday and Monday. Sunday’s opponent is Milwaukee Reagan while Monday’s opponent was still to be determined as of Wednesday.

“It should be an exciting season,” Medford head coach Virgil Berndt said. “We have a lot of experience coming back with letter winners returning. They all can play. They can all play multiple positions. Making a lineup will be tough again because we have so many girls that can play different spots. It might take some time to see what lineup is the best.”

At Rhinelander tonight, Thursday, Medford will open against the Wrightstown Tigers at 8:15 p.m. Round two will be against Hayward or Marshfield, at either 8:30 or 10:15 a.m. Friday, depending on whether Thursday’s game is won or lost. The consolation finals are at noon on Friday, while the championship and third-place games in the bracket are set for 1:45 p.m.

“Those should be three good games for us,” said Berndt, who enters his 35th season as Medford’s head coach.

While winter has been a little stubborn in letting go, the Raiders have been able to get outside a bit in the first two weeks, putting them ahead of the pace of some seasons. Twice last week the team was able to get on its field for full practices, the Raiders spent time in another practice taking some fly balls at Medford Area Middle School and the team worked out on the football field turf Tuesday when a scheduled scrimmage at Wisconsin Rapids was called off due to icy conditions on that field.

Still, Berndt said, as he annually does, the Raiders are far from settled on what their perfect lineup is going to look like at this early stage. The coaches fully plan to do plenty of experimenting in these first five games. GNC play is scheduled to start April 3 at Rhinelander, though it is possible that game could be played in Medford if field conditions are better here.

The varsity roster includes five players who earned All-Great Northern Conference accolades last spring. Leading that list is the junior battery of pitcher Rylee Hraby and catcher Zayleah Leonhardt. Hraby took huge steps forward with her pitching, going 13-8 overall with a 2.45 earned run average and 188 strikeouts in 120 innings pitched. She also hit .414 with 14 extra-base hits and 22 runs batted in.

Leonhardt remained one of the top offensive forces in the conference, hitting .405, 12 extra-base hits and 28 RBIs. Not much gets past her defensively.

Hraby was a firstteam All-District selection by the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association while Leonhardt got honorable mention.

Seniors Tori Konieczny and Chelsea Gebauer and junior Finley Arndt were second-team All-GNC picks last spring and all three will play prominent roles again.

Senior Grace Schmidtfranz, juniors Addison Brahmer, Laney Hraby, Ruthie Steinman, Kailyn Haenel, Ava Hartl and Jolie Steliga and sophomore Kayla Baumgartner round out the crew of letter winners that fill out the roster.

“Rylee obviously is who we’re going to look to for pitching,” Berndt said. “Tori has been putting some time in. Tori and Kailyn Haenel will get some innings and maybe even Kayla Baumgartner will try to pick up some innings. They’ll all give Rylee a little break.”

Berndt said offense should be an overall team strength. The Raiders have a good combination of power, contact hitting, there are a handful of strong bunters and there is speed and smarts on the base paths.

“The girls can hit,” he said. “We should be able to score some runs. I don’t think there’s a girl 1-13 that can’t hit the ball out.”

Collectively last year, the team compiled a .306 batting average, hit 29 doubles, nine homers and eight triples and scored 173 runs, an average of 7.2 in 24 games.

Defensively the team possesses a ton of versatility. On the infield, Konieczny is back at first base. Laney Hraby held down the second base spot for much of last season, Arndt was the primary shortstop and Gebauer played a lot of third base.

Some of the changes the Raiders are looking at are aimed at shoring up the outfield where there have been key mistakes that have cost the Raiders on multiple occasions over the years.

Arndt and Gebauer are likely to get a long early look in centerfield and leftfield respectively. Both actually were outfielders before moving to the dirt last year. Baumgartner will get an early look at shortstop. At third base, Berndt said Steinman and Brahmer could be options. When Steinman catches, Leonhard is also a very good third-base option.

Laney Hraby would be a capable rightfielder if needed, Brahmer’s strong arm makes her a good rightfield option too and Steinman and Brahmer could also play second. Those are just some of the ideas going through the coaches’ minds.

“We have all kinds of options,” Berndt said.

Those options will be sorted out as the Raiders work their way through a 2025 schedule that includes at least three other teams that most observers would say are GNC title contenders. There are several good non-conference opponents on the schedule as well.

Mosinee won last year’s title with a perfect 12-0 league record and finished 29-2 after falling 7-3 to Waupun in the WIAA Division 2 state championship game. Medford, Lakeland and Antigo all tied for second at 8-4. The Raiders were 13-11 overall. Lakeland’s star pitcher Saylor Timmerman and Mosinee’s allaround star athlete Taelyn Jirschele, the 2024 co-GNC Players of the Year, are two of several all-conference type players who return in 2025.

“If they get better around Timmerman, Lakeland will be a tough out,” Berndt said. “Mosinee will be loaded again, probably even better than last year. Antigo is going to be right there with (Bethany) Lewis as their pitcher.

“If we stay healthy, we should be solid. There’s not going to be a game we’re not going to be able to win. I like our chances.”