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: Milton
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 19-10
Conference: Badger South
WIAA Class: D-1
Head Coach: Kris Agnew
Playoff Run: Sectional Finalists
2019 Final Rank: NR
Returning Starters: 7
Returning Pitchers: 7 

OUTLOOK

The Badger South has talent evenly distributed across its ranks, as evidenced by its three-way tie atop its standings in 2019 – between these Milton Red Hawks, Edgewood, and Monona Grove. This 2020, however, looked like Milton’s for the taking. Edgewood and Monona Grove lost a substantial amount of the talent rostered during last year’s share of the BSC, but Milton is returning seven starters and its entire pitching staff, a group that made it all the way to the sectional title game in a close defeat to Sussex Hamilton.

This junior class will keep the team competitive next spring when baseball is (finally) back, but it’s unfortunate we won’t get to see this solid 2020 class working in conjunction with these ‘21s again, because it provided the Red Hawks with their best chance to win the conference outright for the first time since 2012.

Juniors like RHP Evan Jackson, SS Charlie Terrill, and UTL Luke Hessenauer will return next spring as senior leaders. Jackson entered this spring at the top of the rotation and he’ll reassume that spot again next year. He went 7-3 with a 2.49 ERA as a sophomore and is an interesting uncommitted target to know in the state’s 2021 class. Hessenauer is a big right-handed bat that hit .412 in his sophomore season, so he’ll have a big role in the middle of next year’s lineup.

One of the top talents in the state’s 2022 class, Keegan Knutson (South Carolina commit), is a versatile athlete with a high motor who was going to energize this year’s squad. He hit .351 as a freshman, starting at third base. Fellow sophomore Jack Campion also hit over .300 in his freshman, starting at second, and the two will be asked to pick up a lot of slack in their junior seasons.

The loss of the 2020 spring hits the Milton dugout especially hard.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

We’ve touched on some key talent that was going to carry Milton from good to greatness in 2020, and it was this foundational core of seniors that was going to be of utmost importance for this season’s success. LHP/1B Ethan Haefner, LHP/OF Fletcher Terrill, OF Colin Schuetz, and RHP Hunter Pernot were all set to take on big responsibilities for this year’s team, one that had the makings of besting its sectional finals appearance in 2019.

Haefner is a tall, lanky left/left two-way prospect and, as far as we can tell, is among the more intriguing unsigned names inside the state’s 2020 class. He hit .397 and groomed a 3.41 ERA in his junior spring. Schuetz hit .380 as a junior and was going to be a critical member to this everyday lineup.

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