The 78th Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association baseball state tournament will take place in just under a month on June 15-18 at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.
Muskego and New Berlin Eisenhower each won program-first WIAA spring state titles in 2025 with walk-off dramatics leading them to state gold. Muskego won a summer title in 2018, but had never been crowned as spring WIAA champions.
Will another area team or teams provide the dramatics in 2026?
Here are five Milwaukee-area baseball teams who look like state title contenders as the WIAA postseason is set to begin May 28 in Divisions 2 through 4 and June 2 in D1.
Germantown
The Warhawks sat atop our final Milwaukee area rankings at 20-0, having met few equals inside the Greater Metro Conference or out. Still, a state qualification this year would be the first in program history in spring, with the Warhawks also making summer appearances in 1986, 2010 and 2012. Germantown coach Jay Wojcinski, in his 26th season, recently led Whitefish Bay to the summit of D1 in 2023 for a program-first title. The Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Class of 2024 Hall of Fame inductee with more than 500 wins for his career has built another winner in Germantown. Leading the 2026 Warhawks has been a dominant pitching staff holding opponents down to the tune of a sub-.200 batting average and less than two runs a game. Sophomore Brady Lauer is the team’s innings leader (26) while pitching to a 1.62 ERA, and South Dakota State commit and senior Liam Hagland has allowed just one run in 17⅓ innings pitched with 26 strikeouts. Hagland has a six-inning no-hitter to his name this season against Wauwatosa East as well.
Lake Country Lutheran
Reigning D3 state champion Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic received a competitive balance promotion to D2, opening up the D3 throne in 2026 to a new ascending team. One of the best bids to make that jump into title contention may come from the Lightning, which is seeking the program’s first WIAA state appearance since three consecutive appearances from 2013 to 2015. That run included state titles in 2014 and 2015. The tone is set offensively for the 2026 Lightning by sophomore Tate Hagen, who is hitting .552 through 21 games with an otherworldly 1.882 OPS. His extra-base pop includes a team-best two home runs and 12 triples. LCL also gets a boost offensively from RBI leader and senior Grant Manthei (20). The Lightning is a younger outfit with multiple contributing underclassmen like freshman Ty Ziesemer (.283 AVG, 6 RBI) and sophomore Tyler Klafke (.323 AVG, 10 RBI). If the postseason moments prove to not be too big for some emerging stars, LCL could have a run in 2026.
Muskego
The reigning D1 state champions returned several core pieces that led them to the 2025 title, including senior pitchers Tyson Grulkowski and Ben Kuglitsch. Senior catcher Maddux Lessard continues to guide the staff while contributing offensively as well, and the Warriors returned stalwarts at two other key defensive positions in senior outfielder Callen Tomsyck and junior shortstop Kyle Rogosienski. Muskego dominated the Classic 8 Conference this year, handed Franklin its only loss of the season to date in a 7-6 final on May 2 and dominated reigning D3 champion New Berlin Eisenhower in a 7-0 win May 15. Entering the week of May 18, the Warriors appear to be hitting stride with 11 straight wins.
Few defending champions can boast a returning core like Muskego, and it expects to take full advantage with another deep run to defend its title.
Pewaukee
Pewaukee co-head coach Adam Dobberstein admitted recently when reflecting on his 500th career win that his expectations were much lower than a 20-win season for the Pirates just past the mid-point of May in 2026.
“This is probably the first time since maybe 2011 that we were heading into what we thought was not a rebuild, but it was certainly going to be a year that we thought we’re kind of going to have to kind of start over,” Dobberstein said.
Returning less than 25% of their innings pitched and less than 40% of their at-bats from 2025, there have been a plethora of Pirates thrust into new roles in 2026. Dobberstein, in his 26th season, says it is the least experienced team he has brought into a season in 15 years. After the graduation of nine Class of 2025 seniors, Pewaukee’s starting lineup features a freshman, four sophomores and three juniors. What the Pirates lack in experience they have made up for in timely hitting that has proven capable of the double-digit outburst. Whether this team can replicate the types of performances that led to wins over expected D2 contenders like New Berlin Eisenhower and Saint Thomas More in the postseason will be the defining question of their season.
Saint Thomas More
STM made a breakthrough first WIAA state tournament appearance in 2023, reaching the D2 state title game before falling 3-2 in 11 innings to Denmark. Three years later, the Cavaliers are reloaded and looking like potential contenders again with a new core. Luke Mrazek (.500 AVG, 32 RBI), Jackson Rodriguez (.378 AVG, 28 RBI) and Carson Weist (.371 AVG, 30 RBI) lead a star-studded junior class that also gets a bump from the discipline of senior Braden Alivo (.414 AVG, 19 RBI, 21 BB). Junior Ethan Rudolph has anchored the pitching staff with a 6-0 record, 1.31 ERA and team-best 42 strikeouts in 32 innings. Mrazek has also been a lock-down starter with a 4-0 record and 0.79 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 26⅔ innings. In matchups this season with opponents from its sectional, STM was 6-0. While fellow sectional member New Berlin Eisenhower was notably absent from that group of wins, the path to state looks attainable for STM if it can keep up the dominant pitching and disciplined approach.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Top WIAA state baseball title contenders from the Milwaukee area
Reporting by Zac Bellman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
