The Game Changer app for a sports reporter malnourished for high school softball statistics is similar to starving with hunger pains on Cinco de Mayo and having a loved one show up with a chimichanga from Mariachi Loco. The Game Changer app, as the name says, is a game changer and it's like Indiana Jones' trusty whip in search of the Holy Grail of spring softball stats. A whip, however, only helps some of the time.
Wis Sports and Max Preps are two outlets offering high school sports stats. Wis Sports' basketball scores and individual statistics, for the most part, are pretty accurate, with the exception of a handful of teams not reporting. These stats, however, are not available until two and three days after the game in many cases.
Finding softball statistics, especially on a state level has been, and still is, like navigating through snake pits and booby traps on a treasure hunt.
This week's quest led our protagonist, Middle Border Jones, on a mission to find out just how special the Ellsworth softball team's offensive output is to date and how the Panthers rank at the state level. The results are staggering.
Quite simply, the Panther bats have been bludgeoning the ball and, by Middle Border Jones' unofficial figures, third-year Head Coach Tom Diercks' squad leads the state of Wisconsin in runs scored as of Monday night with 228 in 18 games. That's an average of 12.67 runs scored per game. Ellsworth senior Aliza Acker, according to Middle Border Jones' research, leads the state in RBI with 42, just one ahead of Shoreland Lutheran's (Kenosha, Wis.) Grace Olson with 41 at press time Monday night.
Turtle Lake/Clayton has scored 194 runs, but the Titans have only played 14 games and they have a per/game run average of 13.86. Shoreland Lutheran, located just outside of Kenosha in the Metro Classic Conference, sits in third place in the runs scored state category at 184 (11.5 runs scored per/game).
Keep in mind, there were no easy-to-read state lists. Middle Border Jones researched state leaders on Wis Sports, but those numbers were outdated and inaccurate according to teams’ Game Changer sites. The Game Changer statistics are spot on, but the issue is knowing which teams to research. Wis Sports helped in that regard. There may possibly be a Wisconsin high school team with more runs scored than Ellsworth, but if there is, they were not found. Middle Border Jones researched this category for hours.
The following information may also put the current 228 Panther runs scored into a glorious perspective. The Panthers are defending Middle Border Conference softball champs from a year ago. They whacked 18 homeruns last year on their way to a season record of 19-6, however, in 25 games they totaled 199 runs (7.96 per/game). Prescott won the state title and played 24 games in 2024. They finished with a total of 185 runs last year.
This year, the Panthers have smacked 13 round-trippers through 18 games and currently sit at 13-5 and 7-3 in Middle Border Conference play (tied for third). Prescott is also 7-3 in the conference. The Cardinals are crushing the ball, too, but have scored 166 runs in 17 games (9.76 runs/game). Somerset leads the MBC at 9-1 and has scored 123 runs. Baldwin-Woodville (129 runs scored) sits in second place at 8-2, after they dropped a 10-8 game to Prescott Monday night.
Here's how the exciting Middle Border Conference softball season is shaping up to be a dandy of a finish. Prescott is expected to sweep Osceola this week. The Chieftains are 3-10 overall and 2-6 in MBC play. If Baldwin-Woodville and Somerset split in next week's conference final series, which very well could happen, and Ellsworth takes care of business against a scrappy Altoona squad this week, a two-game sweep in the Prescott/Ellsworth showdown would mean a share of the conference title for either the Panthers or the Cardinals. Bring your own lawn chair and show up early, because there are going to be high school softball fireworks on May 13 and 15. The weather man is predicting 80 degrees and sun when Prescott hosts on the 13th. Ellsworth will host on Thursday the 15th.
The Panthers have five seniors. EmmaJo Meier primarily pitches and has had only 16 at-bats this season; however, she still has six RBI and is hitting .312.
Southwest Minnesota State-signee Aliza Acker is hitting .541 with six homeruns, and again, a state-leading 42 RBI. She's scored 33 runs and has not struck out this year. It hasn’t been a question if Acker is going to hit the ball; the real question is how hard will she hit it and how far it’s going to travel.
"Aliza has such a nice swing and she's so powerful," said Panther Head Coach Tom Diercks. "If she ever does make a bad swing, she knows exactly how to correct it herself. That girl can just hit."
UW-Superior-signee Delaney Johnson is hitting .500 with five homeruns, 26 RBI and 36 runs scored. Karli Gutting is batting .386 with a homerun, 24 RBI, and 31 runs scored. Aaliyah Huppert is batting .387 with a homerun, 27 RBI, and 25 runs scored. The Panthers are hitting .397 as a team.
"No doubt about it, those girls can hit the ball," said Diercks.
Diercks did say the pitching in the Middle Border Conference, as a whole, is a little down from last year. One could agree with Diercks’ statement as the Panthers throttled the 2-13 Amery Warriors, scoring 49 runs in two games; however, the Panthers also scored 19 runs in two games against the MBC's second place team in Baldwin-Woodville. The Panthers have scored 20 runs or more during a game five times and scored double digits in 12 out of 18 games.
"It's a great group of seniors, it really is," said Diercks. "They’re so nice. They're great leaders. I'm going to miss them very much."
"Prescott is the team to beat, I think," said EmmaJo Meier after a loss to Somerset. "We need to start sweeping. It's the time in the season to keep moving forward."
"Our hitting coach, Brad Giese, tells us, 'Just hit the ball, it's not that hard,’" said Huppert. "It's a super positive environment. If someone is down, everyone is picking them up."
"Both coaches (Diercks and Giese) wear T-shirts that say, 'don't bunt, hit dingers,’" said catcher Delaney Johnson, chiming in as the five-person interview heated up.
High school softball games are jam packed with team chants and cheers for most of the game. In Ellsworth's 10-2 loss to Somerset last week, the Spartans broke out some “whooo, whooo, whooo” chants after Olivia Johnson belted a two-run homerun to give Somerset a 5-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning.
"We started that!" said Karli Gutting. "They stole that from us!"
"We're not a big singing team," said Johnson. "We're more of a screaming team."
"I think it helps our parents get into it, too," said Huppert.
"The parents all root for us like we're their own kid," Johnson fired off. "This team is one big family."
"Our dads," said Huppert smiling. "They all have that dad pose and stand back all cool behind the fence. I don't mind if my dad (Jason) tells me if I'm doing something wrong. He knows what he's talking about sometimes.”
The conversation became chattier. It was pile on dad time for the Panther seniors, who say their dads are all best friends.
"My dad (Eric) is like 'Hey, you have to toe touch sooner;' he's been my coach since I was 10, but I like the criticism," said Meier.
"My dad really likes to coach me a lot," said Gutting. "He always tells me, 'I can tell that you're hitting off your front foot,' and then he'll say, 'welp, next time.’ But he coached us all the way up to high school, so I guess he did something right."
"My dad's name is Dan and he's a little looser on reigns," said Johnson. "But if I had a bad game, he says, 'Welp, you just have to get your head screwed on a little more and do whatcha' gotta do.' He's pretty chill, but I don't even know what he means to be honest."
"Mine is my mom (Lisa)," said Acker throwing gas on the fire. "She thinks she knows everything about softball, but she doesn't. No, I'm just kidding, she does. With pitching, if I'm doing something wrong, she likes to turn it into a WE problem instead of a ME problem. 'WE need to fix this,' she says. No, it's me. I need to fix this.”
"Those seniors can get to talking, can’t they?” Diercks quietly asked and proceeded to bring it back to the task at hand for the final two weeks of the regular season. “We've been facing some tougher pitching in conference and some of the younger girls have struggled a little bit, so we have to figure some things out. If we can fix a few things, defensively, we can go a long way."
