Two more wins set up exciting finish in Western Cloverbelt race

THORP-GILMAN BASEBALL

Thorp-Gilman’s Brayden Boie slides safely into third base, advancing on a first-inning groundout by Gavin Boie during Friday’s 8-2 win over Osseo-Fairchild in Thorp. The next batter, Logan Kroeplin, singled in Boie to give Thorp-Gilman a 4-1 lead.

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

The Thorp-Gilman baseball co-op extended its run of success to 10 wins in 11 games and kept the pressure on the leaders in the Western Cloverbelt Conference with two more wins in the past week.

The latest win came Tuesday in an 188, six-inning slugfest with Stanley-Boyd that was played in Gilman. The win boosted the team’s conference record to 9-3, putting it a half-game behind 9-2 Fall Creek and Altoona, both of whom have challenging three-game stretches to end league play.

Thorp-Gilman has two conference games left. First, the team is at McDonell Central for a 7 p.m. first pitch tonight, Thursday. A win would make Friday’s trip to Fall Creek for a potential piece of the conference title. First pitch is at 5 p.m. Thorp-Gilman knocked off Fall Creek 3-1 in the teams’ first matchup May 14.

Fall Creek hosts 8-4 Eau Claire Regis today and has to make up a game at Altoona on Monday. Altoona is at Stanley-Boyd today and hosts Regis Friday.

A six-run first inning and a seven-run seventh were the difference for Thorp-Gilman in Tuesday’s win. The team tacked on after jumping ahead 6-0 in the first and led 9-1 through four innings when the Orioles got two in the fifth to start building some offensive momentum.

The co-op got those runs right back in the bottom half to go up 11-3, but Stanley- Boyd got five runs off three different pitchers in the sixth to make it a game again at 11-8. That was only temporary as the seven-run rally by Thorp-Gilman ended it.

Aiden Rosemeyer and Ashton Kroeplin both went four for four at the plate for Thorp-Gilman. Rosemeyer hit a pair of doubles, drove in three runs, scored three and added a sacrifice fly. Kroeplin had a double, scored four runs and drove in two. Brayden Boie was two for five with two RBIs. Logan Kroeplin added a triple and had two RBIs. Ayden Webster and Kade Kroeplin also knocked in two runs apiece. Thorp-Gilman had 15 hits against four different pitchers.

Charlie Hauser was one for two out of the leadoff spot, walked twice and stole five bases.

It wasn’t the best day to be a pitcher, however. Rosemeyer got the start and walked five in his two innings. Brayden Boie allowed two hits and two runs in three innings and was credited with the win. Jack Syryczuk didn’t record an out and allowed two runs, a walk and a hit. Ashton Kroeplin allowed two hits and two runs in one-third of an inning. Gavin Boie walked two and allowed a hit and an unearned run while recording the last two outs.

After Friday’s conference finale, Thorp-Gilman is scheduled to play one more non-conference game Tuesday at Greenwood. The WIAA Division 3 tournament could start as early as June 10 for the co-op.

T-G 8, O-F 2

Gavin Boie came within one out of a complete-game, three-hit pitching performance and the offense ran wild on Osseo-Fairchild’s defense in an 8-2 win at Thorp held early Friday afternoon before area graduation ceremonies. The game was rained out Thursday.

Thorp-Gilman stole 11 bases in the win and took advantage of two errors by the Thunder and were never really in any trouble after giving up a run in the top of the first inning.

Gavin Boie was cruising when he had to be removed with his pitch count hitting 100 with one out to go in the seventh. With the help of a lineout that resulted in a sixth-inning double play, he had faced the minimum 12 batters since the end of the third inning and finished with five strikeouts and two walks allowed.

The Thunder’s only run against him came early on a two-out RBI double to the leftfield corner by Will Ramseier.

That lead didn’t last long as Thorp-Gilman put up a four-spot in the bottom half of the opening inning.

Hauser led off by reaching on an error and stealing second. Kade Kroeplin walked and advanced on a passed ball to put both runners in scoring position for Aiden Rosemeyer, who singled off the glove of third baseman Garrett Koxlien to drive in Hauser.

Brayden Boie singled to score Kroeplin. Rosemeyer scored on a successful double steal and Boie later scored on a base hit by Logan Kroeplin.

From there, Thorp-Gilman tacked on runs here and there.

Gavin Boie singled in Brayden Boie, who had singled and stolen second, in the bottom of the third. Kade Kroeplin singled in Ashton Kroeplin, who had led off the fourth with a base hit. Gavin Boie singled again in the fifth. His courtesy runner, Denzel Sutton, scored on an errant throw as he tried to steal third. Ashton Kroeplin reached on an infield hit and eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-1.

Osseo-Fairchild sandwiched two hits around an error in the seventh when Brayden Boie came on to try to record the last out. He finally did on his fourth batter faced, knocking down a liner hit by Koxlien and throwing him out at first.

Ashton Kroeplin and Gavin Boie were both two for three at the plate, while Brayden Boie was two for four. Thorp-Gilman had nine hits in the win.

Parker Gehrmann took the loss for the Thunder. In 4.2 innings, he allowed eight runs, seven of which were earned, nine hits and two walks. He struck out six.