The Fastpitch Chronicle

The 38th Annual WIAA State Softball tournament gets underway on Thursday morning when Oshkosh West takes on Kenosha Bradford.

I've been to every state softball tournament since 1980. I missed the first four mostly due to the fact that I didn't even know there was such an event. I was busy playing Major Men's fastpitch softball myself and here in Poynette there was not a softball program until 1979.

For me, things changed in 1980. It was the first year of my involvement in the girl's fastpitch game. Our team won the regional title and advanced to the sectional sem-final and eventually the final. After getting beat I thought I'd take in the state tourney anyway to get an idea of what it was like in Waukesha.

Wow! I was really surprised to see four fields in one four-plex that all had grass infields. In addition to that the bench areas were well beyond the infield and into the outfield. The bat racks were way up toward the plate near the on-deck circle but coaches were a long, long way from their players other than the left fielder or right fielder, depending on which bench area they were assigned to.

The bench areas were not covered and on hot days and rainy days that created an issue. Teams had to bring their own tarps, their own water jugs and their own everything for that matter. Before you could beat the other team you had to figure out how to beat the facility.

Over the years I saw some great players. Players who even in this day would be starters for the school they competed for in the early 1980s.

I saw balls that would be home runs at Goodman Diamond die in the gloves of outfielders who were playing very, very deep. I saw short fly balls fall in and I saw that grass affect every coach and team that attempted to figure it out.

In the early days of the state tournament it was interesting to see the Class A coaches try to figure out how to best use their pitching staff. For in those days the softball pitching rules in regards to how many innings a kid could pitch were the same as those still being used by high school baseball teams.

When you arrive at the state tournament, buy a program. The open it to the pages where tournament history and records are printed. Take special note of the number of runs scored in the Class A Championship games. Take note of the number of runs scored in the Class B bracket and when they eventually added it, the Class B bracket.

The WIAA changed the nomenclature somewhere along the historical path to what we use today - Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3.

Division 4 came into being a year after the WISAA organization folded up their tent and the private schools became members of the WIAA.

I'm not going to go into the history of what school has been there the most or what school has won the most titles. If you are interested in such information just go to the WIAA website and read about it there. They have a great press release published this week promoting the state tournament.

As for the games -- Oshkosh West is one of the pre-tourney favorites. Winner of the always tough Fox Valley Association Conference title they will take on perennially strong Kenosha Bradford. West sports a 19-2 record with both losses being to Appleton East, a team also in the eight-team Division 1 field. Bradford enters the tournament at 20-5 and has an 11-game winning streak against Wisconsin team since losing to Tremper on May 3rd.

The second game of the day features SPASH, a team that knocked out the defending champion Chippewa Falls Cardinals 5-3 in the sectional final. They will be taking on Germantown, a perennial power in the northern Milwaukee metropolitan area. The G-town club is 19-2 and could provide some stiff competition for the Panthers.

Game three is between Sun Prairie and Westosha Central. Both teams were in the state tourney last year. Sun Prairie wound up second when a late inning rally lost steam and Chippewa Falls won out. The Cardinals of Sun Praire are a good ball club but have struggled twice against top notch pitching in a 3-1 and 2-1 loss to Madison LaFollette and Gatorade Player of the Year candidate, pitcher Nicole Newman. Westosha Central's Sarah Fonk is also one of the Gatorade Player of the Year candidates and throws the ball as hard as Newman and can make it hop and drop and dazzle as well. Kristen Hoppman, the Sun Prairie slinger is also a top notch kid so this game has the promise of a good one and perhaps, just perhaps a long one.

The final D-1 game pits Appleton East and Menomonmee Falls. The tournament sleeper in my opinion is Falls. The Patriots will need to be on top of their game in order to advance to the Division 1 Final Four this year.

The Division 2 field has teams that can, game in and game out compete with the best of what lies above them in Division 1. They not take a back seat to anyone of the eight Division 1 clubs.

Baldwin-Woodville escaped the sectional final against Rice Lake via a controversial over-ruling and is looking to repeat as champion after being beaten 1-0 two years ago in the state title game by Union Grove. Baldwin-Woodville is led by a group of great hitting seniors and by junior righthander and hitter Abby Klopp. They will take on New Berlin West who emerged from the southeast sectional with a win over Waupun. West is 19-3 and hasn't lost a game since a 3-1 setback at the hands of Eisenhower on May 6th. They are led at the plate by Mallory Klotz at .492.

The other Division 2 Final Four game is between last year's state runner-up Monroe taking on New London. The Cheese is 27-2 on the year and led by senior Becca Armstrong.

It should be a great day at Goodman Diamond.

Have a great day!

Keep it Rising!

Bob