Raiders thumped by Blugolds in season opener

After contending with youth and inexperience on a regular basis in recent years, the Arcadia baseball team comes into this spring with a roster chock full of returning varsity players.

However, the team is still not without its question marks, especially on the pitching mound.

The Raiders went 10-16 overall and 4-8 in Coulee play in 2025 and their biggest losses to graduation mostly came on the pitching staff, where they lost three important arms in Login Scow (a first-team All-Coulee honoree), Max Sobotta and Caleb Pronschinske.

Arcadia head coach Nate Pronschinske said there will be juniors who will largely fill that void, including Logan Breska, Ben Lightfoot and Carter Wegman. Sophomore Deklyn Grzadzielewski returns to help lead the offense after being named to the All-Coulee second team as a freshman.

“I think our team’s greatest strength is the wealth of varsity experience that we are returning,” Pronschinske said. “To address out question marks, it is very clear that we have to be better offensively if we want to improve this year. We struggled with strikeouts last season, so we need to put the ball in play and challenge defenses to score runs this season.”

Six of the team’s regular starting nine are returners from last season and their roster is heavy on upperclassmen with four seniors and five juniors.

“My expectations for this group are high. I see a ton of potential in this group of players,” Pronschinske said. “Our goal is to put together a winning season and playoff run. To do that we will need to throw strikes and score a bunch of runs. If we can do that this team can beat anyone.”

Aquinas 16 Arcadia 1

Arcadia dove right into the deep end to start the 2026 season, squaring off against an area powerhouse in their first game of the spring.

The Raiders (0-1) proved no match for the Aquinas Blugolds (1-0), who bulldozed their way to a 16-1 victory in five innings in their non-conference bout last Tuesday in La Crosse. The Blugolds are coming off three consecutive state tournament appearances, including a D3 state championship in 2024.

The highlight of the evening for Aquinas was a seven-run rally in the bottom of the second that included a grand slam by Ayden David. Marcus Kar also slugged a two-run homer for the Blugolds in the fourth.

A Ben Lightfoot RBI single with two outs in the top of the fifth drove in the lone Raider run and broke up a potential Blugold no-hitter.