Eleva-Strum, Fall Creek look to repeat as champions

Repeating oneself? Eleva-Strum and Fall Creek's prep baseball teams would love to.

The Cardinals won the WIAA Division 4 state championship last season and Fall Creek, in its first season back a separate team after co-oping with Black River Falls for several seasons, won the Western Cloverbelt Conference title.

To do so again would require the returning players on these respective squads to step up gigantically to fill roles left by departed seniors.

This is especially true for Central as starting pitchers Carter Gunderson and Ty Webb have both graduated along with catcher Jake Bjerke alng with Alex Anderson, Brady Nichols, Justin Becker and Jake Olson from last season's 24=-8 squad, Dairyland Conference co-champs as well as regional and sectional champs. E-S also has a new herad coach as Adam LaRock replaces C.J Christenson.

But E-S does return Calvin Barneson, Brody Hanson, Noah Martinson, Evan Christenson, Ty Fjelstad and Brady Zimpel from last year's squad. And the Cards will benefit from facing Dairyland Conference rival Blair-Taylor just once this season as the DC splits into Large and Small divisions with inter-divisional games happening just once.

But as B-T steps away a new rival has emerged for Eleva-Strum and that's Osseo-Fairchild and Thunder have already beaten the Cards 11-1 in five innings back on April 15 at Spangberg Field in Strum. Tryggve Korger notched the complete game win from the mound and O-F's Mason Schmidt had two hits, including a double and Drake Swett belting a three-run homer.

The move from the Western Cloverbelt to the DC could well benefit Osseo-Fairchild in winning a conference title just as they did in boys basketball. The Thunder are already 5-1 to start the season (4-1 in the Large DC) and return 10 lettermen from last season in Sr. Drake Swett; Sr. Brady Loesel; Jr. Mason Schmidt; Jr. Drew Paulus; Jr. Noah Filla; Jr. Colton Williams; Soph. Blaine McCune; Soph. Drew Hanson; Soph. Emerick Korger and Soph. Brooks Koxlien. O-F only graduated All-WCC players Brogan Korger and Spencer Osmonson along with Griffin Chumas, Ethan Friedel and Blake Thompson from last season's 8-14 squad. The biggest returnee is senior Tryggve Korger as he has recovered from an ACL injury and is ready the resume his quality play in high school baseball.

"Tryggve was second team All-Conference his freshman year and first Team his sophomore year in the Western Cloverbelt," O-F head coach Matt Korger said. "He was also the Team MVP his sophomore season and ACE pitcher. His return to the line up and on mound after missing all of last year will make a great impact."

O-F beat the team Korger felt is the team to beat in the Large in Melrose-Mindoro 3-0 and has also knocked off Augusta 22-0 at Krueger Memorial Park in Augusta back on April 8 as Swett pitched a complete game shutout and Korger (2-for-4 with a double and 2RBIs) Swett (two hits, two RBIs) Koxlien (2-for-3) Logan Curtis (2-for-2, 2RBIs), Paulus (a perfect 3-for-3 with a double and three RBIs) and McCune (two hits, RBI-double) all had multi-hit games. Brady Loesel and Tyler Smith both hit doubles as well. O-F won at Whitehall 10-2 on April 17 as Korger and Koxlien both had two hits with Kowxlien hitting a doble and Schmidt driving in two runs with a triple. Swett again was the winning pitcher. But O-F was shutout by Independence/Gilmanton 1-0 back on April 11, showing at least in baseball, the teams Large DC will be much more competitive and not let the Thunder win the league title so quickly as in basketball.

"With all of the injuries we had to older players last year, a lot of young players got a chance to play varsity baseball last year," Korger said. "We return a lot of young, fast, and fundamentally sound players. With Tryggve and Drake anchoring the pitching staff, a run at a conference title and a deep playoff run are not out of the question."

E-S is 4-3 to start the season (3-2 in the LDC and just a game back from first place). They won their latest game, 15-1 in five innings at Augusta last week Thursday, April 17. The Cardinals plated seven runs to break open a 3-1 contest in the first. Martinson went 3-for-4 and scored four times while driving in a run. Barneson also went 3-for-4 at the plate with three runs scored and three RBIs. Newcomers to the E-S line-up also had big days at the plate as Afton Flynn went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Graeden Zwiefelhofer was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. He, Flynn and Barenson all hit doubles and Barneson belted a home run. E-S blanked Indy/Gilmanton on April 8 in Independence. Winning pitcher Noah Martinson was named WHTL 102.3 FM Payer of the Game striking out 11 batters and driving in a run while Fjelstad hit a double. The Cards won despite juts getting three hits as I/G comitted three critical errors. E-S lost back-to-back games shortly thereafter, 9-5 at Fall Creek on April 10 and 3-0 at Melrose-Mindoro the following day before bouncing back to rout Abbostford/Colby 20-3 in a non-conference game on April 14, demonstrating clearly how up and down the season has been so far. But, last season E-S was 4-4 at one point as well so there's plenty of time for a spark to be ignited and a run made, especially after Easter and the beginning of May.

Large Dairyland Conference standings (as of April 18)
Melrose-Mindoro 4-1
Osseo-Fairchild 4-1
Eleva-Strum 3-2
Independence/Gilmanton 2-3
Whitehall 1-4
Augusta 1-4

Fall Creek has almost everyone back from last season's 16-7 squad other than graduated senior Jack Walden. Those returning lettermen are Nathan Kurtz
Kaden Prock, Braylen Prorok, Colton Lee, Ethan Westrate, Josh Wright Finley Wright, Logan Gustafson, Bryson Bann, Brayden Ceranski, Jamison Rochester and Tyler Biegel. Bryson Elkins is their top newcomer to the varsity However the 2025 season has started slowly for the Crickets as they are at .500 at 3-3 although they have won two out of their last three contests. FC edged Eleva-Strum 9-5 at home, outscoring the Cardinals 4-0 over the last two. innings. Fall Creek won despite giving up nine hits and three doubles from Graeden Zwiefelhofer; Noah Martinson; Afton Flynn and a 3-for-4 effort from the plate from Fjelstad. They also beat Cadott on the road for their first WCC win of the season 7-5 in extra innings on April 15. Fall Creek also has a win over Blair-Taylor this season as well and their lossesd have been by one run each.

Bloomer and Eau Claire Regis look to be the top teams to beat to repeat in the WCC.

"We are going to work hard to try to get a little bit better each day," head coach Matt Prissel said. "We want to be fundamentally sound in the field and focus on throwing strikes from the mound. Our hitters will work to be disciplined at the plate and aspire to have quality at bats every time they enter the batter's box. We will take our season one day at a time, one pitch at a time, and hope that at the end of the season we are playing our best baseball."

Western Cloverbelt Conference standings (as of April 18)

Bloomer 2-0
Fall Creek 1-0
Eau Claire Regis 1-0
Chippewa Falls McDonell 1-2
Stanley-Boyd 1-3
Cadott 0-1

After a promising start, a 6-5 win over Independence/Gilmanton, Augusta has struggled since, with a 1-4 overall record before Easter. Their losses include a 12-2 defeat at Whitehall on April 11 and 18-4 at home to Melrose-Mindoro on April 15.

AHS returns lettermen Noah Schroeder, Tyler Lee, Owen Lee, Colton Wincse,Bryce Buttke,Aiden Barnett, Nate Atchison. While graduating Cashton Leslin and Joe Shong, two new Shongs move up to the varsity in Josh and James.