On Tuesday, April 21, the WIAA Board of Control asserted to cancel all 2020 spring competitions, baseball included. While saddened for the graduating class of 2020, the PBR Wisconsin staff will do its best to highlight what could have been this spring, in what was set to be an exciting campaign filled with intriguing storylines to know and players to follow.

We published our ‘Watchlist Squads’ post on Monday, April 20, spotlighting almost 20 need-to-know programs that fell short of official ‘Bubble’ or Power 25 status for our preseason team rankings. Today, and for the remainder of the week, we’re going to be individually detailing our ‘On the Bubble’ teams – teams that earned serious consideration for our Preseason Power 25 Rankings, but ultimately fell just short.

Our 2020 preseason coverage continues today.

Team: Eau Claire North
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 13-12
Conference: Big Rivers
WIAA Class: D-1
Head Coach: Dan Roehl
Playoff Run: Regional Finalists
2019 Final Rank: No. 1
Returning Starters: 6
Returning Pitchers: 1 

OUTLOOK

The reigning, defending Division-1 champions would have started the 2020 season on the outside looking in on the Preseason Power 25 Rankings. Eau Claire North graduated four of their top six bats, led by hockey standout and championship game hero Sam Stange. His late, go-ahead homer in the bottom of the sixth pushed them ahead of Sun Prairie for good in the title game and earned North their second state title of the decade.

What was strange about last year’s group is that it took some time for things to coalesce. North went 9-3 in the Big Rivers, tied for second with Chippewa Falls, but went 25-4 otherwise and were obviously white hot at the perfect time.

In 2020, the Huskies will be in desperate need of arms to surface to the front of the rotation. Stange operated as the team’s go-to, pitching 48-plus innings with a 2.03 ERA and 73 Ks across that span. Graduated are also Carter Hesselman (Wisconsin-Oshkosh) and Austin Goetsch who combined 65 effective innings themselves.

But what this team would have lacked inside its rotation, they would have made up for in runs scored. One of the top sophomores in the state starred as just a freshman for this squad a season ago: Gabe Richardson. The starting third baseman hit .431 last year while providing reliable defense at the hot corner. Richardson was set to reinforce a hardy lineup surrounded by established senior talent.

Had the Huskies sorted out their pitching staff, they could have emerged late in the season and captured a fifth consecutive trip to the Fox Cities.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

North’s experience and loaded senior lineup would have underscored their strengths, led by 1B Anthony Pogodzinski, OF Elyjah Johnson, C Joe Feck – three prospects sticking close to home next fall helping jumpstart the new UW-Eau Claire baseball program. Pogo earned a spot on our Second Team Preseason All-State roster after hitting .408 in his junior season, helping the Huskies grind their way to state glory. INF Jaxon Vance (Saint Marys, MN) and OF/RHP Xavier Bembnister are two more critical seniors a part of this squad; Bembnister namely, considering he was the likely new No. 1 arm on staff.

The season’s cancellation robbed North of an interesting opportunity to piece together a fifth straight trip to state with the hopes of repeating as champions.

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