Arcadia sees early lead fade in regional loss to Somerset

The Arcadia softball team couldn’t have scripted a much better start to their playoff opener on the road last week against Somerset. But despite taking an early lead, the Raiders saw it slip away and their season end in extra innings.

The third-seeded Spartans (17-8) fought back and downed No. 6 seed Arcadia (16-10) 4-3 in eight innings in their WIAA Division Three regional semifinal clash last Tuesday in Somerset.

The Raiders wasted little time jumping out front, with Layna Wozney hitting a sacrifice fly that scored Tatum Drazkowski in the top of the first. In the third inning, Wozney again drove in Drazkowski — this time with an RBI single — and then came around to score herself on Kaitlyn Bremer’s RBI triple one batter later to extend the Arcadia advantage to 3-0.

Somerset’s Marissa Wegeleitner got her team on the board with an RBI double in the bottom of the third. Wegeleitner then knotted the score an inning later with a two-run single.

Neither team scored over the next three innings and the Raiders were set down 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth. With a runner at second and two outs for the Spartans in the bottom of the eighth, Tori Eichten delivered in the clutch with a walk-off RBI double to send Somerset moving on and bring an abrupt end to Arcadia’s 2025 season.

“I thought we played pretty darn well. Obviously, we went in there as the underdog. We jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning. They responded back,” said Arcadia head coach Dave Bjorge. “We had some opportunities. A couple innings where we had runners in scoring position, but we just couldn’t get that big hit to get them in. But overall, I thought our kids played really well. We didn’t go in there playing scared. We went in there with a good attitude of ‘we can win this game’ and we were right there.”

Drazkowski finished 3 for 4 at the plate with two runs scored. Bremer gave up three runs in four innings pitched and Wozney allowed one run in 3 2/3 innings of relief work. Wegeleitner got the win in the circle by surrendering three runs on seven hits while striking out 12 over eight innings.

Somerset went on to lose 3-0 to No. 2 seed Prescott in the regional finals two days later.

The Raiders closed the book on a solid spring that saw them win 16 games, finish second in the Coulee standings and become the only team in the conference to beat West Salem this year.

They are also set to return almost all their production in 2026 with only three seniors — Kaitlyn Bremer, Jordan Walters and Addison Suchla — graduating off the roster.

“We had one senior really that played a lot and two juniors, a lot of sophomores — so we were fairly young,” Bjorge said. “You got to live with the up and down you’re going to get from game to game. You’re trying to be as consistent as possible. But I thought overall the kids did a good job of staying in the moment. They didn’t get too high, they didn’t get too low.”