The 2024 Wisconsin high school baseball season is here and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the spring 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. In the weeks leading up to the opening day, we released our initial Power 25 Rankings, which can be found here. Now we will take a look at teams that earned Power 25 consideration with these 'Teams to Watch' pieces.

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 season coverage continues today.   

High School: Eleva-Strum Cardinals
Head Coach: CJ Christianson
WIAA Division: 4
Conference: Dairyland
2023 Record (Finish): 24-2 (Sectional Finalists)

Key Players Lost: George Munson (Century JC), Hank Munson (Century JC)

 

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ROSTER PREVIEW

No. of Returning Starters: 8
No. of Returning Pitchers: 4

NAME	STATE	CLASS	POS	COMMITMENT
Carter Gunderson	WI	2024	RHP/UTIL	North Iowa Area CC
Jake Bjerke	WI	2024	RHP/1B	Winona State
Tyler Webb	WI	2024	RHP	Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Justin Becker	WI	2024	UTIL	-
Alex Anderson	WI	2024	OF	-
Brady Nichols	WI	2024	OF	-
Ty Fjerstad	WI	2025	RHP/OF	-

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TEAM OUTLOOK

Eleva-Strum has emerged as one of the top teams to beat in the Division 4 field in 2024—boasting an excellent pitching staff with numerous quality athletes on both ends of the diamond.

They return nearly their entire roster from last year’s 24-2 team—including two-way stars in RHP/UTL Carter Gunderson (2024; North Iowa Area CC commit) and RHP/1B Jake Bjerke (2024; Winona State University). Each made positive noise within tournaments throughout the past summers, and showed well on the showcase stage at the Western Wisconsin Open in July. The two arms combined for nine wins last season for Eleva-Strum, in addition to Gunderson hitting .415 with Bjerke exceeding that at an impressive .516 at the plate.

RHP Tyler Webb (2024; Wisconsin-Eau Claire) was arguably the Cardinals’ best arm in 2023—going 8-0 with a 0.77 ERA, as he returns for his senior season as one of the most successful arms in the area.

From there, Eleva-Strum fills in with numerous upperclassmen and a couple of contributing underclassmen. UTL Justin Becker (2024) returns as one of the top bats for the Cardinals, along with OFs Alex Anderson (2024) and Brady Nichols (2024).

RHP/OF Ty Fjerstad (2025) will play a key role to the depth and talent of this lineup and pitching staff, as he will look to see some more time on the bump for Eleva-Strum in what shapes up to be an exciting 2024.

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