Firehall Field will be busy this Saturday as Prescott hosts a three-team invitational featuring Ashland and Elk Mound. Ashland veteran Head Coach Chris Kempf enters the week with 491 career wins, inching closer to a milestone claimed by less than 20 coaches in Wisconsin high school baseball history. Elk Mound, meanwhile, enters the week with an overall record of  13–1  and are currently tied with Fall Creek atop the Cloverbelt West Conference. Both the Crickets and the Mounders are in the same Division 3 sectional bracket with Prescott. Could the game with Elk Mound offer an early glimpse of a postseason matchups? There’s also a familiar name leading Elk Mound—first-year head coach Jon Chisholm, an Ellsworth High School alum.

The Hudson Raiders are ranked #1 in the most recent Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association statewide poll. Other area teams ranked in the top 20 include Elk Mound #8, St. Croix Falls #9, and #20 Boyceville in Division 3. In Division 4 the western Wisconsin teams ranked include the Lancers of Eau Claire Immanuel at #10 and Shell Lake #16. 

Prescott, Arcadia, and Stanley-Boyd all enter the first week in May ranked in the Top 10 in the most recent Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Coaches Association poll. According to area high school softball prognosticators, Bloomer and Spooner also field strong Division 3 teams. Undefeated Baldwin-Woodville is ranked #6 in Division 2 and is picked as the favorite to advance to the WIAA State Tournament. 

Two-time Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Division 2 State Player of the Year and current Fargo-Moorhead infielder Peter Brookshaw is in North Dakota preparing for the May 14 RedHawks’ opener on the road against the Cleburne Texas Railroaders. The RedHawks will post a pair of exhibition games against Winnipeg and the North Dakota State Bison and then head to Kansas City for two more pre-season contests before they open the season in the Lone Star State. 

From the WIAA: The WIAA agreed to an eight-year contract extension with the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to host the State Track & Field Championships through 2034. The agreement with UW-La Crosse provides the WIAA usage of the entire Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex, as well as Mitchell Hall and Hetzel Fieldhouse during the State Meet. The current Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex opened in 2008 and seats 9,556 with additional seating and standing room.

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls baseball team earned the #4 seed and will travel to UW-Whitewater this Thursday to open the WIAC Baseball Tournament against the top-seeded Warhawks. The other opening round matchup features #2 seed UW-La Crosse and #3 seed UW-Eau Claire. For second-year UW- River Falls Head Baseball Coach Steve Bartlein, the conference tournament berth represents a historic breakthrough—the program’s first appearance in the conference tournament. It caps an impressive turnaround for a team that didn’t exist just two decades ago after UW–River Falls cut baseball in 2002, a decision that still raises eyebrows today, only to see it reinstated in 2024–25 through persistent community support and new university leadership. UW–Eau Claire’s path tells a similar story. The Blugolds, whose program was eliminated after the 1995 season, were restored to varsity status in 2019. UW-Eau Claire is also making their first appearance in the four-team, double-elimination tournament. Like River Falls, Eau Claire’s earlier decision to drop baseball two decades ago remains difficult to justify. The winner of this week’s four-team tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament. Defending national champion UW-Whitewater is the clear favorite. The Warhawks have an overall record of 36–3, are ranked fourth in the nation, and are currently riding a 35-game winning streak.

Headshaker of the Week. Globally, soccer dominates when it comes to sports, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Ball. Done. On the other end of the athletic gear teeter-totter, football and hockey require a considerable amount of equipment. Basketball? Still quite simple. Ball and a hoop and maybe a rim bolted above the garage or nailed to the side of the barn. Baseball used to live on that simpler side too. Glove. Bat. Ball. Play. Fast forward to today and all that has changed. While attending a recent Little League game, I watched a 9- or 10-year-old haul in a duffel bag bigger than most airplane carry-ons. Two aluminum bats sticking out (one for each side of the plate, I assume), a helmet crammed inside, and a glove dangling from one of the bat handles were among the visible baseball amenities. Then came the main event. The youngster dropped his bag on the dugout bench, it fell to the ground and exploded like a can of snakes.  A couple baseballs rolled out; makes sense. Then the avalanche: batting gloves, a sliding mitt that looks like it belongs in a kitchen, elbow guard, chin guard, eye black, gum, sunglasses, a bottle of Powerade, a batting sleeve, towels, tape, sweatbands, a headband, and water bottle. The only thing absent was a marker for signing autographs. Wow. It doesn’t seem that long ago when kids biked to the field with only a glove swinging from the handlebars. Now it looks like you need a computerized spreadsheet and a phone app to ensure you are prepared to practice with your fellow fourth graders. All this required equipment to play Little League baseball? Now that’s a headshaker.