Prep Baseball Report

Preseason Power 25 Countdown: No. 25 Kettle Moraine


By Andy Sroka
Illinois & Wisconsin Assistant Director

The Wisconsin high school baseball season kicks off on March 28, opening day for regular season action under WIAA regulations. Over the next week, leading up to opening day, we’ll be publishing our team previews ahead of the 2023 spring season, touching on programs spanning all state classifications, counting down through the official PBR Wisconsin Preseason Power 25 Rankings.

Perennially, we’ve submitted a Preseason Questionnaire to high school head coaches across the entire state. Their responses have been flooding in and we’re using the detailed insight they’ve provided in our team-by-team preseason analysis. We also utilized some of the information published inside the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association's 2023 Yearbook, which is available for purchase here.

Our 2023 preseason coverage begins today.

Team: Kettle Moraine
Preseason Rank: No. 25
2022 Record: 13-11
Conference: Classic Eight
WIAA Division: 1
Head Coach: James Wolbert

ROSTER PREVIEW

NAME POS. SCHOOL CLASS COMMITMENT
Owen Bond OF/LHP Kettle Moraine 2023 St. Thomas (MN)
Cole Miller OF Kettle Moraine 2023 -
Lincoln Ascher C/1B Kettle Moraine
2024 -
Scott Brown 3B/UTL Kettle Moraine
2024 -
Miles Burchardt RHP Kettle Moraine
2024 -
Jonah Roloff RHP/UTL Kettle Moraine 2024 -
Tyler Wille LHP/OF Kettle Moraine
2024 -
JJ Wolbert MIF Kettle Moraine
2024 -
Layson Fabisiak C/INF Kettle Moraine
2025 -
Zach Froemming INF Kettle Moraine
2025 -
Andrew Ishag LHP/1B Kettle Moraine
2025 -
Jimmy Angle OF Kettle Moraine
2026 -
Sam Scaffido INF Kettle Moraine
2026 -


KEY PLAYERS LOST

+ LHP Daniel Heikkenen (2022)

X-FACTOR

+ Now a senior, OF/LHP Owen Bond (St. Thomas, MN, commit) will actually be one of the few seniors set to manufacture runs on a daily basis for Kettle Moraine, and he was arguably the most productive hitter on last year’s Lasers squad. He returns a 0.927 OPS and a team-high 21 walks in 91 plate appearances, and he added seven doubles, a triple, and a homer in his junior spring as well, in addition to 13 steals, a team-high. His seniority and strong left-handed swing will be critically important to a young, but gifted, Kettle Moraine roster that won 13 games as a unit in 2022 without having graduated much of its roster since.

OUTLOOK

Kettle Moraine got off to a hot start in 2022 despite their youth a year ago, in addition to featuring a first-year head coach at the front of their dugout, James Wolbert. Even after something of a rocky finish to the season, the Lasers ultimately finished above .500 and went 8-8 inside the grueling Classic Eight Conference all while rostering a squad full of fresh faces with little to no varsity experience.

Fast forward to the spring of 2023, and Kettle Moraine’s experience gained during last year’s campaign will pay dividends in the season ahead.

The Lasers’ Class of 2024, now juniors, is a deep and talented core that saw a ton of playing time last year and it’ll be fair to expect statistical improvements across the board for this group, including LHP/OF Tyler Wille, who just starred recently at our Milwaukee Preseason ID on March 18. 

There, Wille showcased refined arm strength that allowed him to sit in the upper-80s on the mound, reaching an 89.9 mph max, on a fastball that gets a tremendous amount of horizontal action while spinning at an above-average rate. While he showed an increased feel over a short breaking ball, it’s Wille’s changeup that projects like an out-pitch, with similarly large side-to-side action that works well alongside his fastball. Additionally, Wille’s a sound athlete, and he swings a right-handed bat that also has impactful strength that can generate offense for the Lasers in 2023 after hitting .286 in an everyday role as a sophomore, and he earned 11 innings of work from the mound too.

Junior SS J.J. Wolbert led this team in hits in 2022, with 27, as a table-setter type left-handed hitter. He has a smooth, simple swing that uses the whole field capably, and his middle infield defense has a chance to become his best attribute, as he’s fit with clean footwork and natural up-the-middle actions. Fellow junior classmates C/1B Lincoln Ascher and P/UTL Jonah Roloff should also improve on their sophomore stats this spring. Ascher has right-handed bat strength and will be a reliable backstop for the Lasers. Meanwhile, Roloff is a highly competitive pitcher and a natural, versatile athlete that will allow him to bring defensive value across the diamond, be it at second base, the outfield, or even catcher. Roloff also swings a smooth, athletic left-handed bat that should extend the depth of this lineup in 2023.

Jonah Roloff (10/22/22)

While Wille, Roloff, and Ascher are expected to be deployed most often as batterymates, expect RHP Miles Burchardt to return to the top of this rotation. The 6-foot-4 right-hander returns the most innings of this group (23), and he also brings back a 2.43 ERA, and he’s looked sharp this offseason for us, with mid-80s velocity on a heavy fastball as part of a four-pitch mix, with a curve-slider-change attached.

Additionally, watch for the emergence of 3B/1B Scott Brown (2024) this year. He’s set to make a triumphant comeback this season after showing previously for our staff as one of the class’ most interesting hitters, first back in the fall of 2021. We saw him again recently where he showed upside athleticism and strength in a right-handed swing that recorded some of the winter’s hardest and farthest batted balls, and his barrel feel will help him make an early adjustment to varsity ball soon.

Underclassmen C/INF Layson Fabisiak (2025), LHP/1B Andrew Ishag (2025), INF Zach Froemming (2025), OF Jimmy Angle (2026), and INF Sam Scaffido (2026) are also expected to play roles and fill some of the space elsewhere up and down this lineup. OF Cole Miller is one of two seniors on this roster, including the ‘X-Factor’ Bond, and all of a sudden, the Lasers’ daily lineup projects like one of the most well-rounded in the state, should their talented junior class take some reasonable steps forward in production.

BOTTOM LINE

All in all, scoring 13 wins with so much newness inside the Kettle Moraine dugout in 2022 should provide a healthy dose of optimism for the Lasers’ 2023 outlook. As a staff, we’ve long been fans of the individual talent within this foundational junior group, and we anticipate seeing them make significant improvements on their taste of varsity action as sophomores last season. Combine that with some of the senior and underclassmen that surround them, and this Classic Eight program can be a serious postseason threat with its depth in the rotation and the competitiveness up and down its lineup.

Make sure to follow @PBRWisconsin on Twitter for the most up-to-date coverage throughout the 2023 season.

Find more information on the 2023 Lasers below:

+ Team Website
+ Team Schedule
+ Team Twitter

PRESEASON POWER 25 COUNTDOWN