Arcadia earns trip to state in first legion softball season
In their first summer competing as a legion softball program, Arcadia will be one of eight teams fighting for a Division Two state title this weekend.
Arcadia (11-2 this summer) opens play at noon on Friday in the double elimination tournament at the DeForest Athletic Complex that includes teams such as Fall Creek, Thorp, Osseo, Westby, Viroqua and others.
Legion softball in Wisconsin began last summer and has two divisions, but this was Arcadia’s inaugural season competing in the league. Arcadia is led by spring varsity coach Dave Bjorge and features 2024 graduate Brynn Aspen with a number of players who will return to the program in 2025.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Bjorge said of the state tournament. “I think the girls are pretty excited. Even though you don’t have a big regional to go through and have to play three or four games to qualify, I think it was still pretty exciting. The girls came out hungry and were ready to play and set the tone for what we want to do next weekend.”
Arcadia qualified for state with a 14-1 victory over Osseo at last week’s regional. The regional was supposed to feature Osseo, Arcadia and Durand, but the latter was moved when a different bracket needed another team.
Osseo scored in the top of the first inning, but Arcadia responded with five runs in the bottom half of the first. Arcadia scored in every inning.
A good number of younger players are seeing varsity competition for the first time and responding well, Bjorge said, adding his team has shown strength in multiple areas.
“Kaitlyn (Bremer) has pitched very well, Layna Wozney has pitched pretty well when she’s been called upon, Amaya Schlesser pitched part of a game for us due to injury, so we’ve had a good mix of pitching and played really good defense,” the coach said.
“Offensively we’ve hit the ball pretty well and put pressure on teams base-running, taking things other teams have given us. So we were taking advantage of the good things we should have.”
