Wisconsin's unbreakable high school sports records (2024)

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series examining Wisconsin high school records that have proven difficult to break. The series will publish through July.

Evie Schaller felt comfortable and confident at the plate.

Schaller, the No. 3 hitter in the Chippewa Falls softball team’s lineup, was in the midst of a white-hot postseason hitting run that featured power and production.

In the junior shortstop’s first game at the 2012 WIAA Division 1 softball tournament at Goodman Diamond in Madison, she had three hits — including two home runs — and drove in seven runs in a five-inning, 18-2 quarterfinal victory over Sussex Hamilton.

Schaller knocked in the only run in a 1-0 victory over Appleton East in the semifinal, then added another RBI in a three-run third inning as Chippewa Falls held off Sun Prairie 4-3 in the championship game.

The total of seven runs batted in remains a WIAA state tournament single-game record, and the combined total of nine runs batted in is atop the records for the Division 1 tournament.

“I think that is a huge honor, and I’m proud to be a record holder,” Schaller said. “I never thought after more than 10 years that I would still be holding those records.”

Jared Faherty, who was Chippewa Falls’ coach in 2012 and currently is the team’s co-coach with Chelsea Seckora, said the single-game mark is a tall order to break because a batter likely has to have teammates on base each time she comes to the plate. Then she has to deliver in a big way.

“You have to have the opportunity,” he said. “You have to have a team that gets runners on base. It takes a team and where the timing is working well for you.”

A recipe for breaking the single-game record could be a high-scoring game on both sides. A shortened-game due to the run rule limits at-bats and opportunities to drive in runs. WIAA records show five RBIs as the next highest single-game total.

Schaller — the state’s player of the year in 2012 who later went on to play softball at Winona State University in Minnesota and UW-Eau Claire — had a walk and grand slam as part of a 10-run first inning for Chippewa Falls to erase a 1-0 deficit.

“My mindset was to be patient and look for my pitch,” she said. “We were all hitting that game, so it took some of the pressure off of everyone, and we were walking up to the plate having fun and hitting our pitch. It was a great feeling to contribute to the success of our team.”

Chippewa Falls totaled 19 hits in the four innings it batted.

“It was one of those games where anything we hit found a hole,” Faherty said. “And she came up and hit a couple bombs.”

Schaller’s double drove in teammate Bailey Harder to extend Chippewa Falls’ lead to 14-1 in the second inning.

She struck again in the bottom of the fourth, blasting a two-run homer to center field for an 18-2 lead.

“Our group that year won the title and we had a good hitting group,” Faherty said. “She was the centerpiece of our lineup as the No. 3 hitter. When she hit the grand slam, it was kind of like, 'We’ve got this,' and we kept hitting and hitting.”

Chippewa Falls’ .633 batting average (19 for 30) and 18 runs in the quarterfinal also established Division 1 state tournament records.

Schaller was the team’s shortstop and No. 3 hitter for her four years in high school. She hit 47 career homers, including 17 in 2012. Faherty said six home runs came in the postseason when Schaller went on a tear with three two-run homer games.

“She was in a zone as a hitter,” he said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Schaller, when asked about Faherty’s comment that she was in a zone in postseason, said: “We put in the work all season, so there’s nothing left to do but play. I went up to the plate feeling calm and confident. I knew what I had to do, and stayed in the moment, taking it one pitch at a time.”

Schaller’s triple drove in Emily Holldorf in the top of the fifth for the lone run in the semifinal victory over Appleton East. Chippewa Falls finished 28-2 in that 2012 season after edging Sun Prairie and claiming the state title, the program’s first and only championship in softball.

“It was one of the best moments of my life,” Schaller said. “As a team, we all knew what was expected of each other and trusted in each other’s abilities. We worked very hard throughout the season and collectively knew all we had to do was go out there, have fun and play our hearts out. We did just that.”

Schaller, a UW-Eau Claire graduate, works as the financial coordinator at Benefit Resource Partners in Chippewa Falls.

“I don’t view my performance individually, but as a team,” she said. “We all played really well together and our offense was unstoppable. 2012 was the year for us. We came in with a ton of experience already being at state previous years and we were confident in each other. We all knew what our roles were on the team, and I think that played a huge part in our success.”

Other stories in this series