MOSINEE – Top-seeded Mosinee softball was one run from a third win against Lakeland and a step closer to its first back-to-back WIAA state tournament trip last season.
Instead, the moment slipped away, as Mosinee dropped the win-or-go-home game 1-0 in extra innings – and the sting felt familiar.
Just one season prior, the Indians capped off a 29-2 season with a Division 2 state championship appearance. They took an early lead over Waupun, but a five-run fifth inning proved too much for Mosinee to overcome. They dropped the state title game 7-3.
It’s been a whirlwind of a journey, but third-year coach Cody Brietzke said the group doesn’t dwell on the inevitable shortcomings that come with softball and baseball.
“We reflect a little after games, and then we flip the switch, and we get ready for the next day, either practice, off day, or game day,” Brietzke said. “We really haven’t focused on the past, and we really don’t look at too much of the future. We’re just worried about today.”
While the group doesn’t harp on the past, instead focusing on what’s in front of them, Brietzke feels the journey has translated to an immovable mindset of devotion. From top to bottom, Brietzke and his staff feel the girls are fueled.
“Our girls are extremely dedicated and determined,” Brietzke said. “They have a chip on their shoulder.
“Last year ended not the way we wanted, and they put in the work during the summer and the off-season. The very first day of open gym, we had almost all the girls show up, and they’ve bought in. It’s a very close group of girls that just want to do the best for each other.”
Opening up the 2026 season, Mosinee has returned one of the strongest lineups in the area. They are led by Northwestern University commit Taelyn Jirschele, who returned shortly before the season from knee surgery.
Her sister, sophomore Paetyn Jirschele, has emerged along with captains Addyson Henrich (Iowa State commit) and Ava Busse as some of the strongest hitters in the area.
Busse also steers the ship on the mound as Mosinee’s ace.
At the plate, both Jirschele sisters and Henrich have already notched multi-home run games as the season approaches its midway mark.
It’s been another fast start for the group, but the coaching staff stresses work above all, and the need to maintain the same level of pursuit throughout the season.
“Our motto is we’re going to go all work, no excuses,” Brietzke said. “That’s kind of been our thing. We know that as soon as we let off the gas pedal, another team can easily beat us. We talk about how it doesn’t matter who’s in the other dugout.
“We are our biggest enemy because of that mental aspect, and if we make a mistake or we have an error, how do we recover from that? As a lot of girls don’t recover, I don’t necessarily preach failure, but I tell them it’s going to happen, so get over it and move on together.”
Wins and losses are just a natural part of life to Brietzke. He values a deeper level of coaching, where impact is brewed through connection.
“You know, success is looked at a little differently for me,” Brietzke said. “It’s not always about the wins. To me, it’s the closer this team gets to me that’s a success. Again. We don’t have any internal fires right now, and even if the girls did, as I said, they are pretty determined and extinguish those fires pretty quickly.
“But we all do have that same goal that I guess I haven’t seen in my years of coaching. This is the most determined group, I think I’ve ever had. I don’t think I’ve been part of such a close-knit group of athletes that have team goals before individual goals – and it shows.”
Brietzke and Mosinee’s coaching staff preach that pressure is a privilege. Sitting at 12-2 and in second place in the Great Northern league, the staff sees that this is what the team wants.
What he wants most, though, is to be a life-long resource to them all, beyond the diamond.
“Life is hard,” Brietzke said. “I still talk to my first-year seniors if they have issues at school or in college or even in life. Like they’re sending me a text message or giving me a phone call, crying that they want to talk, and that’s my goal.
“Again, the gold ball is obviously everybody’s goal at the end of the year, but if I still have athletes reaching out to me after high school, that to me is success, because again, life is hard enough the way it is, and being a student athlete only adds to that. Life’s a game of failure, too. I mean, you go through a lot of failures in life, and how do you bounce back? It’s just very similar to softball and baseball.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Reporter Alfred Smith III at alfred.smith@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @AlfredS_III.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Mosinee softball seeking ‘daily success’ on, off the diamond
Reporting by Alfred Smith III, Wausau Daily Herald / Wausau Daily Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
