Tigers continue rivalry with Raiders
By Casey Krautkramer
Stratford’s varsity baseball team not only competes against Marathon for the Marawood South Conference championship each season, but the Tigers often play the Red Raiders in the WIAA Division 3 regional championship. The winner in the regional title game has a good shot at making it through sectionals to the state tournament.
The Tigers lost, 2-0, to the Red Raiders in the regional championship last season. Marathon ended up losing to eventual Division 3 state champion St. Croix Falls in the sectional final. Stratford beat Wittenberg- Birnamwood, 5-2, in a rare regional championship against an opponent other than Marathon in 2022. Marathon defeated Stratford 10-0 in five innings in 2021 on its way to playing in the state tournament. The 2020 baseball season was canceled because of COVID-19. Stratford beat Marathon, 5-1, in regional championship in 2019 to advance to and win its first state title in school history. The Red Raiders edged the Tigers 3-2 in eight innings in the 2018 regional final.
Marshall Lehman is in his sixth year as Stratford’s varsity head baseball coach. His assistant baseball coaches this season are Drew Spaeth, Ryan Bloom, Scott Bauman, Curt Schmidt and Ron Haupt. Lehman has seen his fair share of highly contested games against Marathon in the conference regular season and playoffs.
“We seem to play Marathon in the regional final just about every year and it’s becoming a great rivalry that the players really enjoy,” Lehman said. They know whoever can come out of the Marawood South as the top dog has a good chance to make a long run in the playoffs.”
Stratford’s top returning player this season are senior pitchers and infielders Brady Schmidt and Henry Zaleski, senior outfielder Landon Zawislan, junior pitcher and infielder Lance Kielman, junior infielder Jack Tubbs and sophomore pitcher and catcher Brady Berg.
“A few of the young men who are looking to fill some shoes from last year’s team are sophomore infielder Riley Spindler, junior outfielder Alex Chapel, senior outfielder Braden Bloom and senior pitcher and outfielder Riley Groening,” Lehman said.
Stratford began this season with a doubleheader sweep against Rhinelander by scores of 13-1 and 8-2 in Wisconsin Rapids.
“We started off the season on a great note,” Lehman said. “Our bats came alive right away and we got some big hits when we had runners in scoring position. Getting hits with runners in scoring position is something we struggled with last year, so it was great to see we are doing a better job at it this year. We kept our pitch count low for all of our pitchers. We were able to see a couple of our upperclassmen in Brady Schmidt and Henry Zaleski pitch but we were also able to throw two sophomores in Drew Gage and Brady Berg. Brady Schmidt and Henry Zaleski each started a game and the sophomores finished them. We only walked three batters and struck out 18. It was great to see all four pitchers have great command this early in the season.”
Stratford split its regular-season conference series with Marathon this week. The Tigers shut out the Red Raiders, 4-0, on Monday behind Brady Schmidt’s great game on the mound. Stratford then lost to Marathon, 12-8, on Tuesday. Lehman said it’ll be a battle in the Marawood South Conference until the very end to see which team comes out on top this season.
“Marathon, Edgar and Auburndale are tough teams,” he said. “The Marawood South is a very tough small school conference so we will be tested well this year. With that said, I feel this team is ready to compete for the top spot this year. The players have shown in practice they are ready to work hard and the season started off well. That doesn’t mean it will happen though. We have great competition and our coaching staff will continue to push our players to get better each day.”
Lehman commented on what needs to happen for Stratford to return to Division 3 state tournament and win another state championship like it did in 2019.
“Each season is a new one,” he said. “There are always changes our coaching staff has to make to put our players in the best situations for success. Overall, some important keys for us are consistency in all facets of the game, player leadership and the mental aspect of the game.”
STRATFORD BASEBALL TEAM- Introducing the 2024 Tigers baseball squad. Pictured, from left to right, front row: Trygve Aschenbrenner, Thomas Bangart, Kolton Haupt, Brandon Drexler, Garrett Smazal and Jaden Weis; second row: Assistant coach Ryan Bloom, Jack Remus, Riley Kroening, Alec Chapel, Jack Tubbs, Jaegar Ormond, Hardol Arcos Perez, Dylan Lewerenz and assistant coaches Ron Haupt and Scott Bauman; back row: Head coach Marshall Lehman, assistant coach Drew Spaeth, Vance Kielman Landon Zawislan, Henry Zaleski, Drew Gage, Brady Berg, Brady Schmidt, Braden Bloom, Jamis Sweeney, Riley Spindler and assistant coach Curt Schmidt.
PHOTO BY HOLLY DEHLINGER
