ALL-GNC BASEBALL - Medford has 3 All-GNC seniors; Strebig, Czarnezki get mention

It was an unpredictable 2025 baseball season in the Great Northern Conference where the cliché of “anybody can beat anybody on any given day” certainly rang true.

The Mosinee Indians did wind up winning the championship and getting the farthest of any GNC team in the WIAA post-season, as most observers likely would have predicted in March. But there were several twists and turns along the way.

Under first-year head coach Chandler Schmidt the Medford Raiders had their ups and downs, but in the end it was a successful 14-10 season that included a second-place tie with Rhinelander in the GNC at 7-5 and a WIAA Division 2 regional championship. The results produced individual All-GNC accolades for five Raiders, including three first-team picks.

Senior Parker Lissner was a unanimous first-team pick and a repeat selection from 2024. Senior centerfielder Evan Wilkins moved up a level to get a first-team spot and senior Charlie Gierl earned the firstteam utility/designated hitter spot for his first All-GNC baseball honor.

Medford’s three first-team picks were second-most behind Mosinee’s four.

Additionally, junior pitcher Hayden Strebig and junior catcher Evan Czarnezki made the honorable mention list for their first All-GNC baseball honors.

Lissner, who also got honorable mention as a sophomore, capped his four years in the varsity lineup by ranking

fourth in the GNC in hitting, posting a .429 batting average in 12 league games. He was 18 for 42 with three doubles, 13 runs scored and 13 runs driven in during GNC play. With five walks and a hit by pitch, he had a GNC on-base percentage of .571 and he added eight stolen bases.

Overall in 24 games, Lissner hit a solid .419 (31 for 74) out of the three-spot in the batting order. His 31 hits were a teamhigh. He hit five doubles, which ranked second on the team, and a triple. Lissner led Medford with 21 runs batted in and 24 runs scored. He drew 12 walks and was hit by three pitches. He stole 15 bases in 17 attempts. One of those was a seventhinning steal of home that helped Medford earn a walk-off GNC win over Tomahawk on May 12.

At shortstop, Lissner had a solid .921 fielding percentage with only seven errors in 89 total chances.

Lissner had nine multi-hit games, including a three for five game with four RBIs in Medford’s conference opener, a big 9-7 win at Mosinee on April 10. He had three hits and scored twice in an 8-5 win at Tomahawk May 1 and also had three hits in a 4-2 non-conference win over Rib Lake on May 27. Lissner was two for four with a triple and three RBIs in a 9-4 win at Antigo May 16. He finished by going two for three with a double and a run scored in Medford’s 7-2 sectional semifinal loss to Mosinee on June 10.

Wilkins played errorless ball in centerfield and eventually settled into the leadoff spot in the batting order, where he turned in a strong offensive season. He hit .275 in the conference (11 for 40) and was second in stolen bases with 12.

Overall, Wilkins hit .279 (19 for 68) with two doubles and seven RBIs and 19 runs scored. He used his speed to steal 25 bases in 27 attempts, setting a new singleseason school record. Thomas Mildbrand stole 20 bases in 2006 and that was tied by Caleb Guden in 2022. He drew 16 walks and was hit by four pitches to boost his onbase percentage to .443 in 88 plate appearances.

He was two for four in both regularseason games with Mosinee and was three for four with a double and an RBI in Medford’s 7-1 win at Merrill in a June 4 WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal.

Gierl could be found at first base, in rightfield or on the pitcher’s mound when Medford was on defense and he gave the Raiders a formidable bat out of the ninth spot once the team settled on its batting order.

In conference play, Gierl hit .357 (10 for 28) with five doubles, six RBIs, seven runs scored, eight stolen bases, five walks drawn and a sacrifice fly. He pitched 14.2 GNC innings, going 1-3 with nine strikeouts and 22 hits allowed.

Overall, Gierl hit .364 (20 for 55) with six doubles, a triple, 15 RBIs and a home run at Adams-Friendship on May 17. He scored 11 rans and stole 11 bases. He was 2-3 on the mound. In 33.2 innings pitched, he allowed 41 hits and 34 runs, 26 of which were earned on 22 strikeouts and 25 walks.

His best pitching outing came at the right time as he held Northland Pines to four hits and three runs in six innings during Medford’s 4-3 regional final win on

June 5. He also had a strong outing in the win at Antigo May 16, going 5.1 innings and allowing eight hit and four runs while striking out four. Gierl had two hits, including a double, and three stolen bases in an 8-6 loss at Lakeland May 5. He had two hits, including a double and two RBIs at Antigo. He had a couple of big postseason hits too, with a late RBI double in a 6-2 regional quarterfinal win over Antigo and a two-run single that tied the regional final with Pines.

Lissner joins Mosinee’s Brady Lokken and Treve Stoffel and Antigo’s Gordon Lucht as the four All-GNC infielders. Mosinee’s Elliot Yirkovsky and Rhinelander’s Dylan Vanderbunt are the All-GNC outfielders along with Wilkins. Lakeland’s Ashton Bremer and Rhinelander’s Jackson Waydick are this year’s All-GNC catchers and Jonathan Miller of Northland Pines and Zachary Nechuta of Mosinee were named the league’s top pitchers.

Miller and Bremer shared the 2025 GNC Player of the Year award. Rhinelander’s Joe Waksmonski was named Coach of the Year. The Hodags went 13-11 overall and 7-5 in the GNC this year after going 1-19 and 1-11 last year.

Strebig was the ace of Medford’s pitching staff. The left-hander went 5-2 overall with a solid 2.59 earned run average. In 56.2 innings, he allowed 56 hits and 41 runs, only 21 of which were earned. He struck out 45 hitters and

walked 29. Opponents hit a modest .234 against him.

In the GNC, he posted a strong 2.06 earned run average while going 3-0. He struck out 32 and allowed 33 hits in 34 innings. Of the 27 runs charged to him, only 10 were earned. He walked 14 and hit three. He got the win at Mosinee on April 10 working through five innings with eight strikeouts. He got a 5-3 win at Rhinelander on April 29, going 6.1 innings. All three runs were unearned as he struck out seven, walked four and allowed five hits. He finished league play with a complete-game 7-4 win over Northland Pines on May 19, striking out six, walking one and allowing just four hits and no earned runs.

Strebig collected two playoff wins, allowing just five hits in six innings in the regional opener against Antigo and allowing just four hits and one earned run in 6.1 innings in the regional semifinal at Merrill.

At the plate, Strebig, typically hitting in the five-spot, hit .280 (21 for 75) with two doubles, a triple and 12 RBIs. He hit .289 in GNC games (11 for 38) with two doubles, eight RBIs and 10 runs scored.

Czarnezki, in just his second season of catching and first with the varsity, had just two errors and a .983 fielding percentage in 151 innings behind the dish. At the plate, he gave Medford some pop out of the cleanup spot, hitting .263 (21 for 80) with four doubles and two homers, both in a 12-7 non-conference loss at Marshfield on April 14. He drove in 15 runs, drew seven walks and stole nine bases.

In league games, Czarnezki hit .225 (nine for 40) with five RBIs, five stolen bases and six runs scored. He had multihit games in five of Medford’s first eight contests, including two hits at Mosinee and a three for three day in an 8-4 loss at Northland Pines April 25. He was three for four in the playoff win at Merrill as well.

Mosinee went 9-3 to win the league. That was the lowest win total by a conference champion since Merrill went 93 in the GNC’s first season, 2009. Lakeland and Antigo tied for last at 4-8, the highest win totals a last-place GNC has ever had, demonstrating the parity that existed in the league.

The conference did rise up in the postseason with two All-GNC regional finals, Rhinelander at Mosinee and Northland Pines at Medford. Mosinee gave La Crosse Aquinas all it could handle in a WIAA Division 2 sectional final before falling 6-5.

Medford loses the three senior firstteamers as well as leftfielder Sam Hierlmeier to graduation and will be looking for a new head coach again this off-season as Schmidt has accepted a teaching position at Eau Claire North.