Coming into the season Elk Mound baseball head coach Paul Andrea knew the Mounders had a chance to have a great season. After all, Elk Mound returns an immense amount of talent from a team that went 15-7 and finished second in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference a year ago.
What you expect to be on paper, however, only carries so much weight. But the Mounders have more than delivered in the early going. Elk Mound is off to a 9-0 start, including a 7-0 mark in conference play where the Mounders have outscored opponents 88-9 so far this season.
A clear top three has emerged in the Dunn-St. Croix with Elk Mound, Boyceville and Mondovi all rocking just one conference loss or fewer while every other team in the league has at least five. The Mounders have yet to face either Boyceville or Mondovi, but that’ll change when they travel to take on the Bulldogs at 5 p.m. Monday at Boyceville.
“We’ve had some very lopsided wins against other teams in our league and it’s a blessing and a curse in a way,” Andrea said. “The kids get confidence which is great. But also we have to realize we’re gonna face better competition as we keep moving forward.”
Mondovi and Boyceville — a team that won the Division 4 State Championship in 2021 — are certainly formidable opponents, but the Mounders have the talent to play with just about anyone.
Back in the fold for Elk Mound is Carter Vieth, a UWEC baseball commit that plays catcher. The senior backstop was an All-Dunn-St. Croix first team selection and an All-State honorable mention last season and is hitting .450 so far this year.
Another standout for Elk Mound is junior outfielder Kamron Diermeier, an All-Dunn-St.Croix first team pick and All-State honorable mention. Diermeier is the Mounders leadoff hitter, getting on base at a .539 clip. He has also swiped a staggering 17 bags in nine games so far.
Elk Mound’s roster is undoubtedly star-studded, but the Mounders sport a strong supporting cast as well. Players like Lucas Johnson and Jake Osborne who each received some level of all-conference honors last year are back. Peyton Vieth — the brother of Carter — is manning shortstop as just a sophomore and contributing to a strong defensive effort. He has also stolen 13 bases.
Top to bottom, Elk Mound looks like an extremely tough team to keep down at the plate. Seven of the Mounders nine players that have missed one game or less are batting north of .300 and eight of the nine have an on-base percentage of .400 or better.
“Top to bottom in our lineup, we go probably about seven hitters deep and even our number nine hitter, Brayden Borek has stepped in and is currently hitting well over .300,” Andrea said.
The roster even with just most of the pieces assembled would likely have been able to make noise this season, but perhaps no return set the Mounders up for success more than that of senior Kaden Russo.
Russo was able to play 21 games in the field last season, but the 6’3 senior — who Andrea called the Mounders best pitcher — was only able to toss four innings due to shoulder issues.
Now the senior is back and healthy, flourishing on the mound and at the dish. The Concordia-St. Paul commit can hit the mid-to-upper 80’s on the radar gun and has struck out 44 batters and walked just nine in 21.1 innings pitched this season, all while sporting a 1.29 ERA.
Russo’s absence on the mound last season certainly hurt, but it did give the Mounders the opportunity to let other arms like Diermaier, Johnson and Victor Noller get some valuable experience. Johnson was expected to be the Mounders number two starter this season but has also dealt with shoulder problems.
While being the staff ace, he’s also been the team’s most productive hitter. Russo leads the team in hits, home runs, batting average, on-base percentage and on-base plus slugging. The senior has a jaw-dropping statline of .542/.658/.917 and has driven in a team-high 18 runs.
“Having him back in the mix has been probably the biggest reason we are where we are right now,” Andrea said. “Not having him last year also provided us a chance to develop some other arms behind him, which is certainly paying dividends this year [as well].”
With the roster fully reloaded, there’s certainly potential for Elk Mound to make a deep postseason run. The Mounders were even ranked No. 5 in the most recent WBCA State Baseball Rankings, but Elk Mound is more worried about getting it done in the regular season first.
“We have to take care of business in the regular sense to put ourselves in a better position to get a higher seed in the state tournament and host some playoff games,” Andrea said. “The state tournament is our ultimate goal but [we] certainly want to take care of business in our conference.”
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