BRODHEAD, Wis.—It’s not that Brodhead softball head coach Steve Krupke isn’t appreciative of the fact that making it to the state tournament is no easy feat.
After all, in 17 total seasons running the Cardinals’ program, Krupke has only made it to the big dance twice: in 2004 and last season.
But the head honcho and his players are simply too focused at the task at hand to fully soak it all in just quite yet.
“I really haven’t thought about it,” the two-time state title coach said. “It’s because there’s so much prep involved. You’re always looking at the next opponent, and we like to treat it just like any other game. It really hasn’t sunk in yet.”
It’s been that way for the Cardinals since day one. At the first practice of the season, the returning players from last year’s WIAA Division 3 State championship team wore their celebratory t-shirts from the title win, put them away afterwards and decided they were done talking about it from then on.
The squad wanted to stay focused on chasing a second-straight championship, which Brodhead now has an opportunity to do after beating Adams-Friendship to win the sectional title and advance to the Division 3 state tournament at the University of Wisconsin’s Goodman Diamond in Madison.
The Cardinals open as the No. 2 seed and will face No. 3 Prescott (19-8) on Friday at noon.
“This group learned a lot last year about how to prep, and we’ve just been doing the same thing every night,” Krupke said. “Our practice tonight is going to look the same as our practice on April 14th. We just go about our business, and the kids know that. We do what we can control and we’ll hopefully be putting ourselves in a position to win.”
Last season, Brodhead finished 27-2 as it shut out Somerset 5-0 in the state semifinals before winning the finale against Mayville 1-0 on Jerrica Schwartz’s walk-off RBI double in the eighth inning.
The Cardinals lost stout players such as first baseman Alexis Kammerer and catcher All-RVC first-teamer Taetum Hoesly to graduation. And stellar pitcher McKenna Young, the RVC Player of the Year, is now playing for NCAA Division I South Dakota.
But Brodhead barely missed a beat, finishing 19-4 and winning the Rock Valley Rock Division as Ava Risum, this season’s RVC Rock Pitcher of the Year and a first teamer last season after creating a killer duo with Young in the circle, took over as the Cardinals’ lone ace and ran away with it.
Risum entered the sectional semifinals with a 1.14 ERA after pitching 104 innings and allowing only 55 hits and 17 earned runs. She has walked 13 and struck out 181.
Those numbers have only improved as the junior allowed just four hits and an earned run with 10 strikeouts and no walks in a 3-1 win over the Panthers in the semis and followed it up by allowing four hits, not allowing a walk and striking out 17 batters in an 8-0 complete-game shutout of the Green Devils.
“Ava’s strength is to put the ball wherever she needs to,” Krupke said. “When either she or (catcher) Jerrica or I or my assistants see a weakness in a swing, we can attack it. Jerrica has gotten very good at that, too. She really analyzes the hitters. Ava analyzes the hitters, a lot of times they’re telling me stuff that I’m not aware of. Ava’s got velocity and movement, but her strength is her ability to locate it.”
Risum is also part of a dangerous part of the lineup in the third spot behind leadoff hitter Sophia Leitzen, a three-time all-conference first teamer, and Jaelyn Hilliard, who earned a spot on the first team with a stellar senior season.
“Sophia’s almost always on base,” Krupke said. “In most programs she’d probably be a three hitter, but I like batting her leadoff because I want her up more than anyone else. Jaelyn does a nice job of getting the ball in play and moving runners, and Ava is a consistent bat where she’s going to be driving in runs when there are people in scoring position.”
Freshman Leah Rear has been a strong bat in the fourth spot, blasting a grand slam against Turner in the regular season and helping take down Poynette 3-1 after going 2-for-3 with an RBI. She added two RBI in the win over Adams-Friendship and went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run in the regional-opening victory over Columbus.
“We had some holes to fill from last year, and to think that you’re going to have a freshman step in and do a great job at third base and bat fourth for you — you can’t predict that,” the head coach said. “She doesn’t seem like she’s ever overmatched. She’s had some big hits for us. A freshman is doing a great job when you don’t even notice that she’s a freshman.”
But like any outstanding program, the batting order is deep.
“We don’t have that big drop off,” Krupke said. “Allie Dahl comes up with big hits, she had multiple hits at state last year, Tatum (Ceslok) had multiple hits at state last year. Keegan Steinke was on base when Sophia hit (her walk-off homer in the sectional semifinal). And Tessa (Kloepping) the other night had a big two-RBI hit where she barreled the ball back up the middle. If they get on base and turn over the order and get Sophia and Jaelyn coming up one more time, that’s huge.”
Prescott has made it to the tournament six times but never won it, only making the finals in its most recent appearance in 2021.
“It’s a strong program, very well-coached and very good fundamentally,” Krupke said. “They have a really solid catcher, so I don’t think stealing is going to be an option. And their pitcher’s pretty quick. She has the rise ball with the change up.”
Should Brodhead win, it would face the winner of No. 1 Mishicot (29-0) and No. 4 Laconia (20-8). Mishicot has been to state five times, all since 2014, and won it in 2021. Laconia has also gone five times, all since 2009, and won it three-straight times from 2015-17.
“Mishicot last year was at state, but they got beat before they got to the finals, so we did not see them,” Krupke said. “They got everyone back, and their pitching has gotten a lot better.
“Laconia is scary to me because they've been playing a lot better the last month or so. They beat some really good teams to get to the state level. There's not an easy draw out there at all.”
To reach the championship game, which will be played on Saturday at 1 p.m., the Cardinals will certainly lean on their experience.
“The biggest thing that is going to help us is that they know the routine,” the head coach said. “Even where the bus parks, where we walk to, when we get the cages and when we get to do infield, how long we have on the diamond. Those are things you can’t practice.
“And the fact that a majority of these kids have lived that last year is going to help a little bit in the nerves situation. They’ll be a little bit more likely to go about business as opposed to being distracted”.
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