Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Landon Pepin, Braylon Robinson, and Coach Tyler Swanson.
MAUSTON, Wis.---It couldn't have gone worse for the Gladstone High School baseball team on Opening Day of the 2026 season at the Wisconsin Dells Tournament at the Woodside Complex in Mauston, Wis. But by the end of the weekend, the Braves left with something to smile about and some momentum heading back to the U.P.
The Braves were flattened by the defending state runner-up and second-ranked (Wisconsin) Kewaunee Storm, 22-0, and then lost to the top-ranked Stratford Tigers, 8-1, in the Friday portion of the tournament.
But on Saturday, the Braves met up with a team just as young and inexperienced as they are, the Cameron Comets, and came home with a 12-6 win in eight innings.
And while the win was less-than-perfect, and the whole weekend exposed just how much work this young group of Braves has to do, Manager Tyler Swanson was upbeat and generally happy with his team after the 1-2 weekend.
“We put ourselves into situations where we had to come through in the clutch with guys on base and come up with a big hit after they came back and tied it to send it into extra innings,” Swanson said. “We're checking things off the list to that we want to accomplish. This is a step for us. It was a question of were we going to let yesterday affect today, and I thought we did a pretty good job.”
The Braves showed up with one senior, Braylon Robinson, with Trevor Thorbahn back home recovering from a wrestling injury. And that inexperience showed on Saturday as they Braves couldn't pitch, couldn't hit, couldn't catch a fly ball.
Through it all, Swanson told the guys to stay the course, not worry about the scoreboard, and work on the little things. Against Kewaunee, the Braves pitchers walked eleven batters, the defense made six errors, and only got one base hit on offense (by Xavier Leipzig). Kewaunee's best player, Brett Paulsen, who will play at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside next year, went 5-for-5 with four runs batted in.
There was some improvement in the Friday night game when the Braves lost to Stratford, 8-1, and had plenty of runners on base early on when they drew five walks. They couldn't cash in until the final inning, when Aiden Burie doubled home Landon Pepin with the team's first run of the season.
Gladstone committed just one error in that game, and Nick Proehl pitched admirably, allowing five runs (three earned) on five hits in four innings.
Then, on Saturday, Gladstone had an up-and-down performance over the two-hour-52-minute long game, with more ups than downs along the way. The Braves took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, cashing in on an RBI double by Carter
Sanville and a Braylin Carter RBI single. And that 3-0 lead held up until the fifth inning, as Leipzig pitched in and out of trouble for four scoreless innings. The Comets had multiple baserunners, but stranded nine of them in the first four innings, thanks in large part to the defense of freshman second baseman Landon Pepin.
Pepin played much of the game as a fourth outfielder, robbing Parker Humphrey of a two-run hit in the first inning when he ran down a sinking fly ball. Pepin was at it again in the third inning, when he made back-to-back plays to end the inning with two men on base, including tracking down a flare off the bat of Tucker Gronski.
“Give credit to Landon Pepin because he is somebody who was injured in the fall,” Swanson said. “The kid just works. He's all about it. He's open to taking any kind of ideas, and he's going to rep it. He's going to do the right thing. It's starting to pay off for him on the field and he's an absolute asset at second base.”
“If I can get there, I'm gonna get there,” Pepin said. “I mean, I try my best. It's my ball until it isn't, until my outfielder calls me off.”
The Braves' 3-0 lead shrank to 3-2 when Cameron (0-6) got a base hit, hit batter, and a walk, and took advantage on two straight wild pitches that plated runs.
But the Braves got one run back in the sixth inning when Robinson and Burie led off with hits, got bunted into scoring position by Cooper Sanville, and a Carter Sanville ground ball brought in the insurance run.
And then in the seventh inning, Robinson came through with a line drive into the left field corner with two men on base, giving Gladstone a 6-2 lead.
“It felt amazing,” said Robinson, who led the Braves with three base hits and three runs batted in. “First time this season, getting the bat on the ball, and I showed up today. I was sitting off-speed there, and he threw me a fastball right down the middle, so I just took it. I didn't even feel the pitch, to be honest with you. It was so clean and smooth.”
Gladstone had that 6-2 lead with only three outs to get, but the bottom of the seventh inning was a nightmare. The Braves committed three errors in that half-inning, gave up a walk and one hit, and all of a sudden, the game was tied at 6-6.
So, the Braves went to work in the top of the eighth inning. Burie was hit by a pitch, and both Sanville boys got base hits. Then it was Gladstone's turn to cash in on wild pitches and passed balls, as well as four walks from the depleted Comets pitching staff.
Cooper Sanville's two-run single capped off the six-run rally, and Vinny Rebholz got the final three outs despite giving up a hit and a walk in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“It feels awesome,” Robinson said. “We just flushed yesterday and it was a new day today.”
“First time out on a baseball field this year,” Pepin added. “You know, getting the jitters out. But we came together as a team and got it done today. This says that even though we''ve had little practice and not even getting outside, that we can still come together and get a win, fight through adversity after getting two big losses yesterday.”
So, when will the Braves play baseball again?
"Well, we're going to look for some fields that are dry, even if it's not ours," Swanson said. "We'll try to make it happen next week."
