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: Neenah
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 10-12
Conference: Fox Valley Association
WIAA Class: D-1
Head Coach: Jack Taschner
Playoff Run: Regional Semifinalists
2019 Final Rank: NR
Returning Starters: 5
Returning Pitchers: 4 

OUTLOOK

Neenah is a dark horse residing in the Fox Valley Association that looked like it had the right ingredients to turn some heads in the Appleton area in 2020. A couple under-the-radar seniors, a sturdy junior group, and an upside sophomore helped spotlight a path to huge success this spring.

The Rockets will be able to run it back in 2021 with the help of juniors like SS Jaden Hackbarth, OF Luke Elkin, OF Payton McClowry, and INF Chase Hanselman, among others. Hackbarth hit .340 as a sophomore last spring, and Elkin hit .323 himself. McClowry and Hanselman are a pair of juniors who showed well at our winter showcases, and we were eager to see how they impact Neenah’s chances at the FVA – and more – in 2020.

This program isn’t going away, despite the heartbreaking loss of this 2020 campaign, because of the sophomore reinforcements on the way, led by two-way dynamo Gradin Taschner. Taschner has been identified by our staff as one of the top arms inside the state’s 2022 class. He was up to an easy 87 mph at our Appleton showcase last month with advanced offspeed feel, and he can bloom into one of the aces of the conference, and state. At the Appleton I.D. event, we also got our first-ever look at Jaeden Carstens, a stocky/strong 5-foot-10 righty, who sat in the low-80s with offspeed feel. There are a couple other members of this 2022 class worth monitoring, too, making the Rockets an interesting program to know in a conference typically dominated by heavyweights like Kimberly and Hortonville.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

We laid out in the Outlook the Neenah’s future is bright, despite this season’s cancellation, but this 2020 class could have seriously bolstered the classes under them this spring. Senior two-way talent Steve Marhefke – one of the top uncommitted names to know this late in the 2020 recruiting game – will be back on the mound after an injury prevented him from pitching in 2019. He was up to 84 mph in early march and he takes aggressive hacks capable of churning out run production from the middle of an order.

Senior backstop Jack Carlson (Benedictine College, IL commit) is a steady force behind the plate and would have effectively captained this inexperienced staff this season. Senior arms Rex Bayer (Ripon College) and Michael Valencia would have also helped shore up the work on the mound after it was Marhefke and Taschner’s turn in the rotation.

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