Redmen rebound to secure a share of North championship

RIB LAKE BASEBALL

While the offense has been up and down, the starting pitching has been reliable pretty much the entire 2021 season for the Rib Lake baseball team.

Fortunately, both aspects were there when the Redmen had to have them Friday afternoon.

One day after a humbling 11-1 loss at Athens, Rib Lake rebounded with a convincing 10-0 win over visiting Phillips that gave the Redmen a share of the Marawood North championship. Rib Lake splits the title with Athens and Abbotsford-Colby, who all finished 8-2 in league play.

A win at Athens Thursday would’ve given Rib Lake a shot at the outright title. But, a loss to Phillips Friday would’ve eliminated the Redmen from title contention.

“We just had to flush it down, forget it,” senior Carter Scheithauer said of bouncing back. “You’re going to have bad games, but you can’t let it go on to the next one. You can’t let it carry because then stuff snowballs and they end up being worse.”

“I thought we did a good job tonight of just resetting, restarting,” senior Ryan Patrick added.

“I’m happy for these guys because they put a lot of work into it,” head coach Dick Iverson said. “We did put a lot of summer games in in a short time. All of my kids were there for those 15 contact days. They were there busting their butts, plus we had open gyms before that. So they put the time in. They deserve part of this. This was a good league this year. North and South both had some pretty good teams.”

The pitching end of Friday’s win was taken care of by sophomore Michael Borchardt, who allowed just two hits, struck out eight and walked three. The only semi-threat put up by the Loggers came in the third when Borchardt walked two, but he got a strikeout to end the inning.

“The games we pitch good, we’ve been hard to beat,” Patrick said. “When we give up a lot of walks, it’s a different story. But when we pitch good, good things happen.”

The offense chipped away early and broke the game open with crooked numbers in the fourth and fifth.

Sam Gumz walked, stole second base and scored on Brock Thiede’s single off Logger starter Dawson Hauschild. Thiede later scored on a two-out single by Jordan Yanko. Patrick doubled in the second and scored on Jackson Blomberg’s single.

Two walks sandwiched around a critical two-out throwing error gave Rib Lake an opportunity in the fourth by loading the bases and the Redmen took advantage. Scheithauer lined a two-run single to left-center and, after Yanko singled to re-load the bases, Borchardt’s base hit brought in two more for a 7-0 lead.

In the fifth, Yanko drew a bases-loaded walk and Borchardt walked it off with a two-run single, scoring Thiede and Logan Blomberg with the clinching runs.

After a 2020 season that had high expectations was canceled, Rib Lake began this season with varsity inexperience, but some belief that it could be competitive.

“We lost a lot of talent but the young guys really stepped up to fill key spots,” Thiede said. “As we started to get going, just losing that first game to Stratford 3-1, was kind of a confidence booster for us because they have a lot of seniors play- ers.”

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Scheithauer said. “Then we started practicing and the freshmen and sophomores stepped up. They didn’t get to play last year either. But they showed a lot of talent to replace the guys we lost last year.”

Iverson said he felt good about where the Redmen stood when the season started.

“Nobody really gave us a chance,” he said. “(The pre-season predictions) had us in third. I said from day one, we’ll be all right. Basically we had one guy back with Carter. The two freshmen (Jackson Blomberg and Andrew Wudi) obviously hadn’t played. None of the juniors had batted (in 2019). Logan played the field. Sammy played a little bit at the end of the year. So really there wasn’t any varsity experience besides Carter coming back. I knew Abbotsford-Colby at the beginning of the year was going to be good. They had a lot of guys back. I knew Athens had three or four good guys back.”

The senior co-captains said that opening loss at Stratford was one of the season’s biggest confidence boosters. The other turning point was a 4-0 win at Marathon on May 14.

“We lost to Marathon in a scrimmage before the season started,” Scheithauer said. “It didn’t matter, we were just pitching everybody. But then we came back and played an actual game with them and we won. It felt great.

“That was one of the best games we played all year,” Thiede said.

While Scheithauer has been the unquestioned ace of the pitching staff, including throwing a no-hitter at Auburndale on April 30, the ability of Logan Blomberg, Borchardt, Ty Annala and Jake Matyka to eat up innings has been big.

“Now we do have a lot of depth for pitching,” Scheithauer said. “We have guys who can throw strikes. We may not be overpowering or anything, but we have a good enough defense behind us.”

Patrick said the summer games of 2020 that Iverson was able to pull together, even though Rib Lake didn’t have a home field, were crucial to getting the ball rolling for this spring.

“We had people trying this spot or that spot,” Patrick said. “That helped a lot. When Michael pitched, now Yanko comes in from right field, as an example. We can switch pieces around.”

“That’s where Jackson started at second base,” Scheithauer added. “He just got a bunch of time there last summer. As a first baseman, I got to learn how each person’s ball tails. Logan’s ball tails right into my glove. Andrew’s look like they’re going to be short, but they’re not. Michael’s are pretty straight.

“Summer ball always helps with chemistry,” Thiede said.

Now it’s on to the post-season for the 10-7 Redmen, who drew the second seed in their WIAA Division 4 regional bracket. Rib Lake hosts seventh-seeded Prentice today, Thursday, at 4:45 in the opening round. The Redmen beat the Buccaneers 20-0 and 20-1 in the regular season.

Things will likely pick up quickly from there. Rib Lake could get a regional semifinal rematch with Athens on June 15. The third-seeded Blue Jays host sixthseeded Northland-Wisconsin Valley Lutheran today. Top-seeded Edgar, who beat Rib Lake 9-1 in the season’s second game, is a potential regional final opponent.

“It will be interesting because I think we have the toughest regional in the state right now,” Iverson said. “We have Edgar, Athens, Butternut is 11-3. Newman beat us. They lost to Stratford by one and Marathon by one. They have four good seniors. There are five really solid teams in there.”

Rib Lake’s game with Flambeau that was to be played Monday was canceled.

Athens 11, Rib Lake 1

Two days after a 6-5 win over Athens put Rib Lake in position to win the Marawood North outright, the Blue Jays responded and grabbed their title share Thursday with an 11-1, five-inning win over the Redmen in Athens.

A seven-run third inning did most of the damage as defensive miscues and walks allowed the Jays to pile up the runs despite just two hits.

“It was kind of a reversal of the first game,” Iverson said. “They gave us a bunch of runs in the first one, then we did the same thing. We had a bunch of errors and mental mistakes.”

Rib Lake had just two hits, a leadoff double by Gumz in the first and an RBI single from Matyka, who came off the bench and delivered after Borchardt had reached on an error and stole second and Wudi had walked. That made it 10-1 at the time.

Athens got RBI singles in the first inning from Kody Lepak and Brooks Kraus. The big third inning started with an error on a ball hit by winning pitcher Dayne Diethelm. With one out, an error, three straight walks and a Damien Haines single opened the floodgates. With two down, an error, Diethelm’s single and another error made it 9-0.

Haines added an RBI single in the fourth. After Rib Lake got its run, Athens loaded the bases in the fifth and ended it on Kyle Ellenbecker’s single.

Logan Blomberg started and took the loss in 2.2 innings of work. Annala allowed two runs in 1.2 innings. Jackson Blomberg faced the last three hitters.

Athens had just seven hits. Diethelm struck out eight and walked only one.

Rib Lake’s Ryan Patrick gets by Phillips catcher EJ Bogdon and scores on a base hit by Jackson Blomberg to give the Redmen a 3-0, second-inning lead over the Loggers during Friday’s eventual 10-0 win.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS