The Fastpitch Chronicle

For every player that will be playing in the Border Battle pitting 12 Wisconsin graduated players against 12 Minnesota graduated players agrees that the event is a chance to showcase their skills, play against kids from a neighboring state and meet kids from their own state that they've never had a chance to talk to.

For Lauren Reimers of Morris Area High School in Minnesota it's about the same things. "It's really a cool idea," she said after her team's Monday practice at the Woodside Sports Complex just outside Wisconsin Dells. "It's a good opportunity to compete against the girls from Wisconsin and to meet these other girls from Minnesota." Reimers, who batted .576 throughout the recent season says she is just excited to be a part of the entire two-day experience.

The coaches fro the Minnesota team are Laura Olson of Maple River High School, Dawn Engebritson from Rockford High School and Kim Bowen from Big Lake High School.  

As I sat and watched both teams practice this afternoon there were surely more similarities than differences. 

For Minnesota their 12 players come from ten different schools ranging is size from the 232 students at Hayfield to the 3060 at Wayzata. Other enrollment numbers for the Minnesota team are Morris Area at 295, Maple River with 295, Maple Lake with 287, Jackson Country Central with 310, East Ridge with 1543, Centennial with 2017, Eastview with 2056, Edina with 2436, Minnetonka with 2750, up through Wayzata with 3060.

The 12 players on Team Wisconsin also represent 10 different High Schools ranging is size from Beloit Turner with 458, to Kimberly with 1418 students, Chippewa Falls with 1446 and up to Stevens Point with near 2500 (other Wisconsin 2014-15 enrollment information is no longer on the WIAA website -- all schools are listed with zero enrollment).

Makaela Egan of East Ridge High School will attend Alabama and walk on with the Crimson tide. When asked about her thoughts on the Border Battle she said, "I'm excited about all of this. A .467 batter in 2015 she said it should be a good doubleheader and good level of competition."

Anna Gimmestad of Wayzata will play softball at Bucknell in the Patriot League. She batted .479 during the season and is a shortstop. "It's going to be a fun day playing against those Wisconsin girls," she said. "It should be a great day for all of us."

Kelsey McAllister is from Centennial High School. The pitcher said, "this is an amazing chance to play against girls from Wisconsin and with girls from Minnesota that I had never met. Being on a team of just 12 really good players is exciting." She will attend Bemidji State where she will become a teammate of Wisconsin All Star Makayla Pagel of D.C. Everest.

Pagel had a break out day in 2014 at the early Northwoods Jamboree in Poynette where she hit three home runs in one game and had four round-trippers on the day. Pagel used that game as springboard to further success which will see her playing alongside tomorrow's foe in McAllister. "It's really neat being on the same team as these other Wisconsin players and playing against someone who will become my teammate after tomorrow's games. It's been fun just getting comfortable around and with the other girls from Wisconsin. Being from the northwoods tI seems like we don't get the kind of respect from the southern half of the state that we deserve. Being on this team shows some respect for the northern half of the state." 

Another "northwoods" player is Rice Lake outfielder Jessie Dostal who will attend St. Thomas in St. Paul and play for coach John Tschida.

Haley Huss from Kaukauna High School happens to be the daughter of longtime men's fastpitch player Bill Huss who toiled for several world-class men's fastpitch teams. To say that Haley has been around the game for a longtime would be an understatement, she's been around it her entire life. A shortstop for the Ghosts, Haley hit just over .400 for the season and will attend Roosevelt University in the fall and play softball. "It's a different experience," she said Haley Huss when asked about her thoughts on Tuesday games after the team practice today. "lt has been really great to meet these other really good players from Wisconsin and get a chance to play Minnesota girls."

The first game begins at 11:00 am with the second game to begin around 1:00 pm. The girls practiced for about two hours today, had a pizza party in the evening and were then free to use the waterpark at Chula Vista or do other activities on their own. 

Each game will be seven inning no matter the score. In case of tie after seven innings one inning of play using the international tiebreaker will be played. If still tied the game will end in a tie. That has happened one other time in the past five years. Both teams will bat all 12 girls before the leadoff batter steps in for a second at bat. 

Minnesota holds a slim 5-4-1 lead over Wisconsin over that time. "Maybe we can sneak ahead of them," said Wisconsin Co-Coach Tom Drohner (Stevens Point). 

Said Wisconsin Co-Coach Jared Faherty, "This is just another chance to play a game before they move on to a collegiate career. To represent their state against a natural rival is cool and to meet kids from other schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota is a plus."

There will be rosters available at the gate and their will be concessions. There are no pets allowed at the Woodside Sports Complex and the signs along the entry road at the complex also say -- "No Carryin Beverage or Food!"