View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
I discovered today (Wednesday) that 1999, or 22 years ago, was the last time the Edgar varsity softball team won a playoff regional championship. No. 2 playoff seed Edgar has a great opportunity this Thursday, May 26, to beat No. 3 seed Three Lakes/Phelps in its home WIAA Division 5 regional title game and create more school history.
The father-daughter head coaching duo of Kevin and Samantha Brown are doing a wonderful job molding this spring’s Edgar varsity softball squad into a great team. I know they’d rather the emphasis be on the players, but credit needs to be given where credit is due. They took over a very talented young team this season but it also takes good coaching for the team to achieve playoff success.
Marathon’s varsity softball squad hasn’t had a winning record in the Marawood South Conference during the past two seasons, but the Red Raiders somehow endure long playoff runs, which I believe is more of a testament to how tough their conference is with teams like Wisconsin Rapids Assumption in it.
Markesan was awarded the No. 2 seed because it had a much better regularseason record than Marathon, but it’s difficult to tell how tough its conference was this season. There’s no other way to explain how Marathon continues to win road playoff games the past two seasons against higher ranked opponents.
The Red Raiders won three straight playoff games last season to win a regional championship. No. 7 seed Marathon has easily disbanded Montello and Markesan to advance into a WIAA Division 4 road regional championship against Marawood South Conference foe Auburndale tomorrow, May 26.
Marathon may have lost both conference games against Auburndale this season, but in the teams’ last meeting, the Red Raiders only lost by one run against the Eagles. This provides for an intriguing regional final in Auburndale.
The Athens varsity softball team has an excellent chance to win back-to-back WIAA Division 5 regional championships this Thursday, May 26. No. 1 seed Athens plays at home against No. 4 seed Thorp. Athens cruised to an easy regional semifinal victory against Clear Lake on Tuesday to advance into the regional final.
In this week’s newspaper, I prioritized my sports coverage on golf, softball and track and field playoff regionals. I didn’t have any space left over for coverage of the final baseball regularseason games, but don’t worry baseball fans, I’ll have plenty of playoff baseball coverage in next week’s The Record-Review. Marathon baseball starts the playoffs at home this Thursday, May 26, against Crandon, while the Athens, Edgar and Straford baseball squads first begin the playoffs this Tuesday, May 31.
