The 2024 Wisconsin high school baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across the Badger State.  

Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons in their respective WIAA Division State Championship, but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams with this initial Preseason Power 25 release which will take us right up to first pitch.

Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across Wisconsin. Each week we will be releasing our Power 25, Players of the Week, Diamond Notes, Scout Blog and much more.

Our 2024 preseason coverage continues today.

High School: Kettle Moraine Lasers
Preseason Rank: 2
Head Coach: James Wolbert
WIAA Division: 1
Conference: Classic Eight
2023 Record (Finish): 19-9 (Regional Finalists)
Key Players Lost: OF Owen Bond (St. Thomas, MN).

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ROSTER PREVIEW

Team Strengths: Depth across the roster; balanced. Returning experience.
No. of Returning Starters: 7
No. of Returning Pitchers: 7

NAME	STATE	CLASS	POS	COMMITMENT
Kaiden Ascher	WI	2024	RHP	-
Lincoln Ascher	WI	2024	C	Central Missouri
Scott Brown	WI	2024	OF	-
Cade Buchholz	WI	2024	INF	-
Miles Burchardt	WI	2024	RHP	Madison JC
Reed Burns	WI	2024	1B	Elgin CC
Logan Gronewold	WI	2024	RHP	-
Jonah Roloff	WI	2024	RHP/OF	Madison JC
Tyler Wille	WI	2024	LHP/OF	Davidson
JJ Wolbert	WI	2024	SS	Madison JC
Layson Fabisiak	WI	2025	3B	-
Zach Froemming	WI	2025	RHP	-
Andrew Ishag	WI	2025	LHP/1B	-
Jimmy Angle	WI	2026	OF	-
Sam Scaffido	WI	2026	MIF	-

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X-FACTOR

+ LHP/OF Tyler Wille (2024; Davidson commit) is one of the most athletic seniors in the state and he was one of Wisconsin’s breakout prospects in 2023. With an upper-80s fastball that touched 90 mph in-game, Wille gets to his velocity with ease, stemming from that advanced athleticism. The changeup is presently his go-to secondary, as it plays off his running fastball well, with deception and sink/fade action itself. The short breaker, 75-76 mph, has been a useful third pitch for him, and it looked in a start near us this past fall. While his future is brightest on the mound, he’s going to be a key member of the Lasers’ offense this season, given his right-handed bat strength, and his athleticism makes him reliable in the outfield as well.

(Tyler Wille, 9/24/23)

He won five games in 2023 and finished with a 3.53 ERA, and he hit .254, but we’re optimistic about Wille notching up his play on both sides of the ball this campaign, as he refines his next-level talent.

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NEWCOMER TO WATCH

(Jimmy Angle, 10/23/23)

+ OF Jimmy Angle (2026) actually did earn some playing time as a freshman in Kettle Moraine last spring, but after what we saw out of him recently at the Madison ID a couple weeks back, Angle could really become a name-to-follow in the state. He’s a 6-foot, 192-pound athlete capable of making premium contact from the right side. Also, be on the lookout for OF/RHP Chace Staude (2027), a freshman here who spent the end of last summer representing Wisconsin at the Prep Baseball Junior Future Games. He has shown advanced defense out in center field, with huge arm strength, and he’s an athletic left-handed hitter.

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TEAM OUTLOOK

Every year, the Classic Eight Conference is a battle. In 2024, the Classic Eight will be a war.

We’ve got five programs from the conference ranked on our Preseason Power 25, and as the No. 2-ranked team in the state, Kettle Moraine is the highest of the bunch. We’re high on them for many reasons, but the first of which is the amount of talent coming back to them from last year’s 19-win teams. They suffered an early exit to a punchy Burlington squad that fought its way to state, but that loss revved up the Lasers for the last nine months since. You can sense that this is a tight-knit group, and the senior class is especially deep, providing depth at the front of the rotation and up and down its lineup.

Kettle Moraine has talent evenly spread across its roster, and that talent is particularly experienced in the arduous Classic Eight schedule by now. We’re especially high on the amount of innings the Lasers bring back this spring, which is all but six total from 2023. RHP/OF/C Jonah Roloff (2024; Madison JC) is the de facto ace, and by that we mean this is a rotation capable of having more than just one ace by WIAA standards.

(Jonah Roloff, 6/23/23)

Roloff is as competitive as it gets on the mound, attacking the opposition with a mid-80s vertical fastball that really explodes through the zone, and a breaking ball that really complements it, and a totally viable third-pitch change. The combo helped Roloff impress our staff on numerous occasions last summer, registering double-digit Ks several times at Prep Baseball tourneys. For Kettle Moraine, he finished with a 0.25 ERA in 2023. He was just as good in the summer as the level of competition rose too, which is a bright signal for the Lasers’ outlook this spring.

Roloff is backed in the rotation by some really skilled se still: RHP Miles Burchardt (2024; Madison JC), LHP Andrew Ishag (2025), and the ‘X-Factor’ Wille. Burchardt broke out in 2023 and finished the spring with a 1.40 ERA and he went on to commit to Madison last fall. He’s a 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-hander with mid- to upper-80s velo on a running fastball with secondaries he’s demonstrated feel for. Ishag is an upside junior left-hander in the mid-80s with the makings of a swing-and-miss changeup and a curveball that has flashed sharp bite in the past. Also, LHP Kaiden Ascher (2024) is a true submariner who will also be a clutch high-leverage arm on the staff; RHP Zach Froemming (2025) is an athletic basketball prospect who will also be huge in a relief role this spring.

The primary backstop is senior Lincoln Ascher (Central Missouri) who’s very familiar with these arms at this point, and he adds a level of power potential to this lineup on a daily basis. 1B Reed Burns (Elgin CC) is also back, returning a .354 from a season ago; it’s an easy right-handed swing that gives the lineup more bat strength too. We’re also really high on the uncommitted senior OF Scott Brown, who was frankly one of the top right-handed hitters that we crossed paths with last summer, and this was after he hit over .300 last spring – it feels like he’s in for a huge senior year offensively. Brown brings both bat-to-ball skills and compact bat strength, as well as athleticism, to the batter’s box each at-bat.

(Scott Brown, 7/1/23)

SS JJ Wolbert (2024; Madison JC) brings quite a bit of stability to the middle of the infield. He’s an excellent defender and he’s another we really liked watching last summer over several looks, playing on the same travel team as Brown and Ascher, among others. He swings an athletic left-handed bat and he hit .296 as a junior, and we’re anticipating him to really set the table for the lasers in 2024. Sharing the left side of the diamond with Wolbert is the junior 3B Layson Fabisiak and he, like many of the athletes on this roster, is capable of playing all over the field defensively. He’s also a left-handed hitter who hit over .350 as a junior last season, and this will be his third year on varsity. Sophomore Sam Scaffido and senior Cade Buchholz look like they’ll fill in some of the blanks on the field as things shift around, depending on who’s pitching, but mostly at second base.

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BOTTOM LINE

The Lasers are aimed directly for the top of the rigorous Classic Eight, which means they have their sights set on a state title. The depth and experience on the mound has them equipped to handle the postseason grind, but they’re also completely capable of making a sizable leap offensively. Many of the ‘24s on this roster are coming off very productive summer seasons from the plate, supported by some talented juniors too, and when you add it all up Kettle Moraine has each of the ingredients necessary to win a D1 state championship in 2024.

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Find more information on the 2024 Kettle Moraine program below:

• Follow the Lasers on X @LasersBaseball.
• Find the Lasers’ 2024 Schedule here.

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