Rally comes up short, but provides momentum for win over Eagles

RIB LAKE BASEBALL

The Rib Lake Redmen broke a mini two-game losing streak in a big way Monday, scoring eight first-inning runs and rolling to a 16-1 Marawood North win at Chequamegon.

Rib Lake had 13 hits in the five-inning game, led by junior Ty Annala who had a career night as the designated hitter by going four for four with two doubles, a triple and eight runs batted in.

The win put Rib Lake at 2-1 in the North heading into a rematch with the Screaming Eagles tonight, Thursday, in Rib Lake at 4:45 p.m. The Redmen are 3-4 overall.

Head coach Dick Iverson said it was a good sign to see the offense start to come around after a slow start in the season’s first six games. It started with a threerun rally that came up a run short Friday against Newman Catholic.

“I did feel good about how we came back in that last inning,” Iverson said of Friday’s game. “That made me feel really good. We were down and still had a chance to come back and win. That just carried over into the Chequamegon game. We started out red hot. Maybe we’re finally starting to turn a corner with putting the ball in play. That’s all we’ve been stressing is to quit striking out and putting the ball in play and see what happens.

“At Chequamegon the ball fell in and they booted a few that we hit hard. It puts a little more pressure on the defense when you just hit the ball hard and get runners in scoring position.”

The first-inning rally started with Sam Gumz drawing a walk and stealing a base. An error on a ball hit by Logan Blomberg scored Gumz. After Carter Scheithauer walked, the hits started coming. Jordan Yanko doubled to score Blomberg and Michael Borchardt walked to load the bases for Annala. He cleared the bases with a three-run double to start his big night and make it 5-0.

Andrew Wudi singled in Annala, Jackson Blomberg doubled in Wudi and Brock Thiede singled in Blomberg.

From there, the offense kept adding on against a Chequamegon team that was down a few bodies. Some of those players are expected back today.

“It will be a different ball game on Thursday,” Iverson said.

Yanko went two for three to continue a recent upswing for him. Thiede went two for four and Gumz, Scheithauer, Borchardt, Wudi and Blomberg finished with one hit apiece.

Scheithauer pitched the first three innings and by throwing just 36 pitches, he’ll be available to start again today. He struck out four and walked one. Blomberg covered the last two innings, walking three and striking out three. Defensively, Rib Lake turned two double plays in the later innings. Wudi stabbed a line drive at third and doubled a runner off first. Logan Blomberg, playing shortstop, fielded a grounder up the middle, stepped on second and made a perfect throw to first for a 6-3 twin killing.

After tonight’s game, the Redmen will head to Marathon Friday for a Marawood crossover against the always-tough Red Raiders at 4:45 p.m. Next week features a non-conference home game with Thorp-Gilman Monday at 5 p.m. and then Marawood North games with a struggling Prentice squad at home Tuesday and on the road May 20.

Newman 6, Rib Lake 5

On Friday, visiting Newman Catholic took advantage of defensive miscues in the second and fourth innings to build a 6-2 lead and then held on for dear life when Rib Lake rallied in the bottom of the seventh.

Newman’s Brennan Shaughnessy homered in the first to put the Cardinals up 1-0. In the second, two walks, an RBI single by leadoff hitter Taylor Lemanski combined with an error and Shaughnessy getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded on an 0-2 pitch put the Cardinals up 3-0. The Redmen answered in the bottom half when Yanko led off with a triple. Wudi drew a one-out walk. Jackson Blomberg singled in a run. After an Annala walk, Gumz hit a sacrifice fly to score Wudi.

Unfortunately, Newman’s three-run fourth wound up being the difference.

Lemanski singled with one out and stole second. After Dylan Ackerman was intentionally walked, Shaughnessy hit into a fielder’s choice putting Rib Lake one out away from getting out of the inning. Instead, Elijah Gustafson dumped a 1-2 pitch into the outfield for an RBI single, Nicholas Brenner walked and Benjamin Noll knocked in two more with a base hit.

“We’re still walking too many batters,” Iverson said. “That’s what beat us against Newman. We had eight walks and we hit a guy on an 0-2 pitch with the bases loaded and we gave up a base hit on an 0-2 pitch with bases loaded. That cost us in the fourth inning.”

Jackson Blomberg started the seventhinning rally with a fly ball Newman’s leftfielder misplayed into a double. Annala drove him in with a line drive single to right-center. Pinch runner Kaden Kennedy scored on Borchardt’s double down the leftfield line. After a wild pitch, Borchardt scored on Logan Blomberg’s sacrifice fly. Newman pitcher Joshua Klement ended it by getting Scheithauer to ground out.

Yanko and Jackson Blomberg both went two for three as Rib Lake had eight hits. Annala started on the mound and went four innings, allowing six hits and six walks while striking out three. Borchardt pitched three scoreless relief innings, striking out three, walking two and allowing two hits.

After an impressive 4-0 shutout win at Abbotsford-Colby on May 4, Rib Lake was unable to complete the sweep over their North rivals, falling 10-4 Thursday in Rib Lake.

The Redmen committed five errors, walked five batters, hit another and, offensively, left 13 runners on base.

The game was tied 2-2 going into the third when Abby-Colby put up a fourspot. The visitors scored one in the fifth and got three in the sixth, including a solo homer from Ross Elmhorst.

Rib Lake tied the game in the bottom of the first but the inning could have been much bigger. The Redmen loaded the bases with no outs, but only got bases- loaded walks from Scheithauer and Yanko to drive in the runs.

Logan Blomberg walked in the third and scored on Yanko’s double. Yanko singled and scored an unearned run in the fifth to make it 7-4.

Logan Blomberg took the loss, allowing seven runs, three of which were earned. He gave up only five hits. Jake Matyka pitched the last two innings and allowed two earned runs and three hits. He struck out two and walked two.

Yanko was three for three. Scheithauer and Wudi had the only other hits.

In the 4-0 win on May 4, Rib Lake got clutch hits late to support the two-hit pitching of Scheithauer, who struck out 10.

With the game scoreless going into the sixth, Thiede broke up Hunter Soyk’s nohit bid with a leadoff double, went to third on Logan Blomberg’s hit and scored on a wild pitch. After Scheithauer walked and Ryan Patrick grounded out, Yanko drove in Blomberg with a groundout.

Wudi singled to lead off the seventh, Jackson Blomberg reached on an error and Abbotsford misplayed a sacrifice bunt by Gumz, allowing a run to score. Logan Blomberg added a sacrifice fly.

Soyk went five-plus innings and struck out eight hitters while walking four. He left having allowed two hits and was charged with two earned runs. Marco Olvera allowed two unearned runs and a hit while striking out one and walking two in two innings.

“Abby’s not bad,” Iverson said. “I think they’re 7-2 and when we saw them we saw four guys throw and they all threw pretty well. They put the ball in play and they play good defense.”