GILMAN-THORPSLAMFEST - Softball teams soak up some sun, find some success at Slamfest
GILMAN-THORP SLAMFEST
Featuring five ranked teams and several other programs that have been consistent contenders in its 21-team field, Saturday’s Gilman-Thorp Slamfest upheld its goal of being one of the state’s top one-day softball tournaments of the season.
While a little cool and breezy early, sunshine most of the day and, eventually, temperatures in the mid to upper 60s made for a perfect day for four rounds and 21 games of softball at the two schools.
And it was almost a perfect day for the two local participants, Gilman and Medford.
The Pirates won their two outings, opening the tournament Saturday morning with a 12-3 win over Drummond and ending it late in the afternoon with a 14-2 rout of Glenwood City.
Medford had a tough draw in its games played in Thorp. The Raiders, though, got a quality win in game one, knocking off Fall Creek, who was 22-1 coming in, by a score of 2-1. Stratford, though, ended the day by topping the Raiders 4-1.
Fall Creek came in as the state’s secondranked team in Division 4. Top-ranked Grantsburg won both of its games over Maple Northwestern and Tomahawk. The top-ranked team in Division 5, Stevens Point Pacelli, beat Mondovi and Athens. McDonell Central, the fifth-ranked team in Division 4, handily defeated Northwestern and Edgar. The co-host Thorp Cardinals, who came in ranked seventh in Division 5, held off challenges from Spencer and Chequamegon.
Stratford, who improved to 15-6, was another of the event’s 2-0 teams, also beating Blair-Taylor to go along with its win over Medford. Durand-Arkansas, coached by Gilman alum Wade Hendricks, beat Hurley and Drummond.
Medford 2, Fall Creek 1
In one of the top matchups of the day, Medford’s Rylee Hraby struck out 17 batters and Zayleah Leonhardt had the big hit in the top of the third inning as the Raiders edged the Fall Creek Crickets 2-1 in a quick, defensive-minded pitchers’ duel.
Hraby allowed just two hits, an unearned run and three walks against a team that has won the Western Cloverbelt Conference championship at 14-0 and hadn’t lost to a Wisconsin team. Hraby was just a bit better than Fall Creek lefthander Grace Herrem, who allowed nine hits and struck out five.
Fall Creek stopped a Medford scoring threat in the top of the first with a rare 9-32 double play. With two on, Leonhardt hit a ball sharply to rightfield where Larissa Johnson got to it quickly and threw Leonhardt out at first. Rylee Hraby tried to score from second and was then thrown out at the plate by first baseman Addison Haynes.
The Raiders did come through in their big chance in the third, however. Rylee Hraby reached on a one-out error and Finley Arndt singled. The runners advanced on a wild pitch. Herrem had a chance to get out of it when Tori Konieczny popped out to shortstop Sophie Johnson, but Leonhardt smacked a single up the middle, that turned into an additional base, when it was misplayed. That allowed Arndt to score behind courtesy runner Jolie Steliga.
Medford ran into an out on the base paths in the fifth and left the bases loaded in the seventh.
Fall Creek, though, wasn’t able to get much going offensively. The Crickets didn’t get their first hit until Herrem’s twoout RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, which plated Sophie Johnson, who had walked and advanced to third on an errant pickoff attempt.
Emma Westrate doubled to deep left to start the bottom of the seventh and stole third, with help from an obstruction call, with two outs. But Hraby struck out Haynes to keep Westrate there.
Rylee and Laney Hraby had two hits each, as did Arndt. Jada Surek, Kyanna Mallien and Leonhardt had a hit apiece.
Gilman 12, Drummond 3
Gilman made the most of six hits and, defensively, excelled at limiting damage when Drummond threatened in a 12-3 win over the Lumberjacks Saturday morning.
A tight 5-3 game was blown open with a seven-run bottom of the sixth that pushed the game past its time limit.
Walks to Abby Chaplinski and Chloe Irwin around an Ava Warner single loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth. Chaplinski scored when Drummond misplayed Allison Olynick’s ground ball. Drummond then got two outs, but walks to Raygen Soper and Kenlyn Kroeplin scored two and Danielle Mann cleared the bases with a single that was compounded by an error in the outfield. Mann scored the last run on a wild pitch.
Gilman led 2-1 going into the bottom half of the third. Walks to Kayleigh James and Kroeplin set up Mann’s two-run triple, though Mann was tagged out in a rundown between third and home. Chaplinski followed with another triple and scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-1.
Scarlett Stuner pitched all six innings. She gave up 12 hits, but walked none and struck out four. She pitched out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the second with no runs allowed. Drummond again loaded them with no outs in the third and scored just once. While the Lumberjacks scored twice in the fifth, starting the inning with two doubles and a single in the first four batters, that damage was limited as well by ground balls on the infield.
Mann and Warner both went two for three. Chaplinski and Kroeplin had one hit apiece. The Pirates drew 10 walks from Drummond pitcher Ella Wald.
Pirates 14, Hilltoppers 2
In their finale, the Pirates scored seven runs in the first inning and seven more in the fourth to blow out Glenwood City 14-2 in five innings.
A one-out walk to Soper and singles by Kroeplin and Mann set up the big first inning. The first two runs scored on wild pitches and Warner followed with a tworun single. Walks to Jayda Rosemeyer and Mylie Stephens loaded the bases for Olynick, who also walked to drive in a run. Soper’s two-out single made it 7-0.
The Hilltoppers got two back in the bottom of the first, but also stranded two runners.
From there, Mann shut the Hilltoppers down. She finished with five hits allowed and one walk. Glenwood City got a single and double to start the bottom of the fourth and neither runner scored.
Gilman’s big fourth inning started with an error on a ball hit by Kroeplin. Mann singled and Chaplinski doubled to score Kroeplin. Warner followed with her sec- two-run single of the game. Olynick singled in a pair and late in the rally, Kroeplin and Mann also singled in runs.
Mann was four for four, Warner was two for four with four RBIs and Kroeplin was two for four.
Stratford 4, Medford 1
In the finale at Thorp, Stratford junior Laney Pankratz limited Medford to six hits and walked only two batters and the Tigers made the most of their limited offensive chances in a 4-1 win over the Raiders.
Hraby was solid again, striking out 13 more batters for a total of 30 on the day. She walked three and allowed four hits.
The heart of Stratford’s order got the Tigers the only runs they’d need in the bottom of the fourth. With the game scoreless, Pankratz and Emma Roeper hit back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. Tria Tubbs drove in Pankratz with a groundout and Roeper eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Medford got one right back in the top of the fifth. Ava Hartl and Mallien started the inning with singles and Laney Hraby bunted them up 60 feet. Rylee Hraby grounded a ball back to Pankratz, but she froze while looking the runners back and allowed Hraby to reach and load the bases. Arndt dropped a looper into shallow left that drove in Hartl, but the Tigers alertly got a force out at third. After Koniecnzy walked to re-load the bases, Pankratz got Leonhardt to fly out to center to end the inning at 2-1.
Stratford got two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Roeper walked and Tubbs tripled to deep right. Tubbs scored on a passed ball.
Six different Raiders had a hit apiece –– Rylee Hraby, Mallien, Arndt, Hartl, Leonhardt and Grace Schmidtfranz.
Gilman pitcher Danielle Mann winds up and delivers during the third inning of the Pirates’ 14-2 win over Glenwood City Saturday. Second baseman Kayleigh James is ready to make a play. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Medford catcher Zayleah Leonhardt catches a short pop-up hit by Fall Creek’s Delaney Lewandowski.
