Prep Baseball Report

On the Bubble: Random Lake


By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer, Associate Scout

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: Random Lake
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 20-5
Conference: Big East
WIAA Class: D-3
Head Coach: Mike Donahue
Playoff Run: N/A
2019 Final Rank: Regional Finalists
Returning Starters: 7
Returning Pitchers: 4 

OUTLOOK

Of all the teams hit hardest by the cancellation of the 2020 spring season, the Random Lake Rams have to be among the biggest casualties. The Rams were eager to make good on an early postseason exit in 2019 to in-conference rivals Ozaukee in the regional title game. Random Lake won 20 games last season and were returning many of the same faces that helped make that run possible, and most of that crew are members of the 2020 class.

3B Blake Hall had a big summer that landed him on more than just our own radar – it eventually helped him stick close to home at the next level, committing to play at the Milwaukee School of Engineering next fall. In reality, Hall had been thriving at the prep level since he was a freshman with the Rams, and we were excited to watch him attempt to close his decorated prep career on the highest of notes.

Juniors like Jared Mitchell and Dylan Davis were set to reinforce this talented 2020 class, within a lineup that looked capable of winning any kind of slugfest.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

We referenced Hall’s heroics but it’s this entire 2020 class that had Random Lake as one of the top D-3 programs in the state entering this year’s campaign. Donald Singer (Bryant & Stratton commit), Case Noll, Cole Borchardt, Peyton Mueller, and Jake Spaeth were all members of last year’s conference-winning team in everyday roles and were etched right back into this starting lineup to achieve even greater things. We were looking forward to visiting their latest rematch with Ozaukee, which was all set to be a hotly contested game between two teams with eyes on the Big East – and more.

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