WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL REGIONAL - Redmen edge Jays for title, make amends against Toppers

WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL REGIONAL

MATT FREY

SPORTS EDITOR

The top goal and bottom line in WIAA tournament baseball is to advance and earn plaques by winning the game in front of you. Rib Lake’s WIAA Division 4 regional championship last week had the added ingredient of redemption, which made it just a little bit sweeter.

First, the Redmen avenged a humbling 12-4 regional semifinal loss to Glenwood City by beating the eighth-seeded Hilltoppers 7-3 in the May 30 semifinal, which was postponed a day due to rain.

In Thursday’s final, the top-seeded Redmen overcame a shaky start and held off Marawood North and fourth-seeded Athens 6-5 to claim the program’s second regional title in three years.

Rib Lake improved to 17-5 at the time and advanced to Tuesday’s sectional tournament in Bruce, where it beat Edgar in the semifinal and lost to Solon Springs-Northwood in the championship game.

For many on the team, getting the regional plaque and advancing to sectional play was a big deal to them after the stilllingering sting of an upset regional final loss in basketball this winter.

“In my opinion at least, it was more of a mental jump than a physical jump just because of the simple fact that we kinda pooped the bed in basketball,” senior cocaptain Andrew Wudi said. “After last year a big mental one too is beating Glenwood City this year just to get over that hump from the loss last year. I think once we did that it helped us a lot.”

“We talked about it at the beginning of the year,” said sophomore Talon Scheithauer, the winning pitcher in the regional final. “We wanted to win conference and then every plaque. We start by getting the regional one. It’s a relief. Start somewhere and then you gotta build on it.”

While Rib Lake had beaten Athens 5-1 in both regular-season meetings in early April, the Redmen took nothing for granted and didn’t panic after the Blue Jays hit them with a three-spot right off the bat in the first inning. Hunter Haehlke and Kamden Zarnke singled off Rib Lake starter Dominic Quednow and Daxton Diethelm walked to load the bases with no outs. They scored on a bunt single by Adam Belter, a sacrifice fly from Nick Pittman and a wild pitch.

“We knew it was going to be a good game because each time we played them before it was 5-1 wins but they were 1-1 games each time going into the fifth,” Rib Lake head coach Dick Iverson said. “They had been playing well. They had just knocked off a hot Edgar team. Edgar had won six out of its last seven. We knew they had been playing really well, so we knew it was going to be a battle.”

Rib Lake took the lead with two runs in each of its first two at-bats. The co-captains got the first inning rally started as Andrew Wudi singled and Jackson Blomberg tripled him in with a drive deep into the right-centerfield gap. Ethan Cook’s single to left drove in Blomberg.

Seth Borchardt and Tyler Matyka singled to start the bottom of the second and advanced on a wild pitch. Donovan Sutherland’s tapper to first drove in Borchardt and Matyka scored on what was ruled a dropped fly ball in right.

We’ve been able to do that pretty well this whole year,” Blomberg said of responding to slow starts.

“I’d say out of our first five, six games we started out losing in four or five of them,” Wudi said. “We’ve been coming back from down quite a bit this year. I think we’re used to it at this point.”

The lead didn’t last, forcing Rib Lake to come back again.

Athens tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the third and had the bases loaded with two outs when Iverson turned to Scheithauer to relieve Quednow. He caught Kaleb Cracraft’s infield pop-up to end the inning and only give up one run the rest of the way in a strong 4.1-inning outing. He struck out one, walked one and allowed one run on three hits.

“I was just trying to be confident, staying confident,” Scheithauer said. Pound the strike zone and let the defense do the work.”

“To have that confidence to come in as a sophomore with bases loaded in a regional final, that’s pretty big,” Blomberg said.

Athens turned a Haehlke double and Zarnke single into an RBI groundout by Diethelm to take a 5-4 lead in the fourth, but Rib Lake came through in the fifth. Wudi was hit by a Haehlke pitch, stole second and went to third on a throwing error. Blomberg also walked and stole second. Cook, a sophomore, put the ball in play, grounding out to deep short to drive in Wudi for his second RBI of the game. Quednow then hit a hard bouncer past first baseman, Belter, for the go-ahead RBI.

“I knew I just had two strikes on me and had to put the ball in play to help my team out,” Cook said of his key at-bats in the win.

Cook’s defense then helped preserve that lead in the sixth. Haehlke singled with one out and Diethelm reached on a two-out error to put runners on the corners for clean-up hitter Kaden Auner. Athens gambled, sending Diethelm, but Rib Lake had a pitchout called and Cook threw to Blomberg at second base for the third out of the inning.

“Coach has been coaching for 41 years,” Cook said. “He knew (the runner) was going. Talon pitched out, I was ready for it and just gunned him down. It felt great.”

“Throwing my curveball for a strike was big,” Scheithauer said. “Getting up in the count we were able to throw pitchouts, which led to Ethan throwing a guy out. Big play, big momentum change that helped a lot.”

“That was the big play of the game,” Iverson said. “Talon made a perfect pitchout and Ethan made a perfect throw to second. We had called a timeout and talked about it and what we were going to do on it, so we were all set and organized.”

Scheithauer set the Blue Jays down in order in the seventh and the celebration was on.

“It feels great,” Cook said. “It’s been one of our goals all season.”

Matyka was two for three at the plate for Rib Lake, while the top seven hitters in the order had one hit apiece. Haehlke went the distance for Athens, striking out three, walking one and hitting one while allowing nine hits.

“Pretty confident,” Scheithauer said, looking ahead to the sectional. “We’re playing good baseball, not our best. We know we can play better. I think with bigger games, bigger situations, we’ll play better.”

“We’re going to have to be at the top of our game to get through that bracket,” Iverson said. “You never know. It’s high school baseball. When you get to sectionals, it really comes down to throwing strikes, playing defense and you have to put the ball in play. When you get to sectionals, it could be the one error, a couple of crucial walks or guys not putting the ball in play when they need to, maybe getting a bunt down that it comes down to. You have to do the little things right in sectionals to get through.”

Redmen 7, Toppers 3

Clutch was the word for the previous night’s regional semifinal as the Redmen scored all seven of their runs with two outs in the 7-3 win over Glenwood City.

Blomberg threw six solid innings, striking out seven Hilltoppers, walking four and allowing six hits and two earned runs. The Redmen never trailed with a tworun first and three-run fifth giving them a 5-1 lead.

“We hit the ball OK with seven different guys getting hits,” Iverson said. “Glenwood City is better than their record (7-10) showed. We hadn’t played for quite awhile. All the rain and cancellations we’ve had I think kind of threw our pitchers off a little bit. But they had knocked us off last year. We knew it was going to be a good game.”

Wudi singled and moved to second on a passed ball in the bottom of the first and Cook was hit by a two-out pitch from Glenwood City starter Peyton Theune. Quednow and Brady Heiser singled in the runners for a 2-0 lead.

Blomberg kept the Hilltoppers off the board until the top of the fifth when number-nine hitter Caleb Klinger hit a two-out single, Brock Wood walked and Steven Booth doubled in Klinger. Blomberg ended the rally there with a groundout.

Rib Lake responded in the bottom half with a leadoff walk and stolen base from Quednow and a base hit by Heiser to put runners on the corners. Two strikeouts gave Theune and the Hilltoppers a chance to get out of the innings, but pinch hitter Aiden Stapleton had a big at-bat, working for a walk, Quednow scored on a wild pitch and Scheithauer smacked a two-run double.

Blomberg singled and Cook was hit by a pitch in the sixth and the runs scored on a two-out error on a ball hit by Borchardt. Single runs in the sixth and seventh weren’t enough for Glenwood City.

Wudi and Heiser both went two for four at the plate. Borchardt, Sutherland, Blomberg, Scheithauer and Quednow all added one hit each.

Rib Lake’s Andrew Wudi dives head first behind Athens catcher Logan Ebben and scores the team’s first run in its 6-5 WIAA Division 4 regional final win Thursday over the Blue Jays. Wudi scored on a triple by Jackson Blomberg. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Rib Lake catcher Ethan Cook throws out Athens’ Ty Johnson on a fifth-inning bunt attempt during Thursday’s regional final win. Cook later threw out a wouldbe base stealer in the sixth inning in what head coach Dick Iverson called the play of the game. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Rib Lake second baseman Tyler Matyka throws to first to record the final out in Thursday’s 6-5 WIAA Division 4 regional final win over Athens. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS