DAIRYLAND LEAGUE SMALL - Rib Lake wins tough battle to finish 7-0; Interwald routs Westboro
DAIRYLAND LEAGUE SMALL
It wasn’t easy but the Rib Lake Osprey was able to cap an undefeated run through the Dairyland League’s Small Division this season with Friday’s 8-7 win over a stubborn squad from Abbotsford.
The Merchants actually led much of the way, but Rib Lake regained the lead at 6-5 with a four-run rally in the sixth and then things see-sawed until Luke Blomberg’s tiebreaking triple in the bottom of the eighth scored Seth Mudgett with the winning run. Mudgett had beat out an infield single with one out. Blomberg’s liner to the gap in rightcenter took a hard, unexpected bounce and split the two Abbotsford outfielders allowing Mudgett to easily circle the bases. Blomberg was cut down at home plate on Drew Hauschild’s fielder’s choice keeping the lead at 87.
Hauschild issued a one-out walk in the ninth, but the runner didn’t advance past first base.
Rib Lake finished 7-0 in the division, while Abbotsford wound up 4-3, good for a fourthplace tie with Westboro.
Hauschild got the win with five solid innings in relief of starter Bryant Konieczny. Hauschild allowed five hits and three earned runs while striking out eight and walking four. The Merchants, who were just nine deep Friday, got a lot of good contact against Konieczny, touching him for eight hits and four runs, though only one was earned.
Jeff Ziembo’s RBI grounder in the bottom of the first gave the Osprey a 1-0 lead, but Abbotsford countered with an unearned run in the second, Lucas Stahnke’s RBI single in the third and two runs in the fourth on Mateo Lopez’s rocket to deep left that went for an RBI double and Aaron Morrow’s RBI single.
Ziembo drilled a two-out RBI double to the rightfield corner in the fifth, but Abbotsford got that run back on Morrow’s RBI single in the top of the sixth for a 5-2 Merchants’ lead.
Rib Lake’s big sixth inning started with an infield single by Blomberg. Hauschild singled and Jordan Yanko bunted for a hit to load the bases with no outs against Morrow, who threw seven innings for Abbotsford. Joe Frombach’s fielder’s choice scored Blomberg. Konieczny re-loaded the bases by bunting for a hit. Levi Ewan drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Abbotsford intentionally walked Ziembo to load the bases with two outs. Austin Ewan made the Merchants pay with a two-run, goahead single.
Abbotsford took the lead back with a tworun seventh. Levi Ewan walked with the bases loaded in the bottom half to tie it.
Blomberg, Konieczny, Mudgett and Hauschild each had two of Rib Lake’s 11 hits. Lopez and Morrow each went three for five for Abbotsford. Morrow allowed nine hits and seven runs, six earned, while striking out five and walking 10.
Interwald wins
Interwald’s offense was unstoppable, banging out 19 hits and drawing 12 walks in a 224 seven-inning rout at Westboro. The Woodticks finished 5-2 in league play, good for a second-place tie with Pittsville. Dalton Strebig went four for seven and drove in seven runs, highlighted by a seventhinning grand slam. Interwald scored 10 runs in that inning to end the game early. Craig Scheithauer was three for four, scored five times, hit a solo homer to lead off the fifth and hit a two-run double in the seventh.
Matt Mohr was three for six with three runs scored and two runs batted in. He led off the third with a solo homer.
Pete Devine got the pitching victory, striking out eight, walking two and allowing seven hits. Westboro got three runs in the fourth to temporarily cut into an 11-0 lead. James Holliday hit a two-run single and the third run scored on an error.
Butch Wiegel, Connor Westfall and Holliday had two hits apiece for the Trojans. Jesus Ontiveros took the loss.
Medford loses close one
Medford had one of its best outings of the league season, but it wasn’t quite enough as Pittsville used a four-run sixth-inning rally to overtake the visiting Moondogs 8-6 Saturday night.
Medford finished league play at 1-6. Gage Hanson, the number-nine hitter in Medford’s order, went two for three with an RBI double in the second inning and an RBI single in the fifth that broke a 4-4 tie. Medford got a sacrifice fly from Josh Turner to go up 6-4 in the top of the sixth, but the game turned on the Moondogs in the bottom half.
Noah Grimm hit a leadoff single, but Trenton Woebbeking retired the next two hitters to give Medford a chance to get out of the inning. But number-nine hitter Ben Buettner walked and Evan Haley singled up the middle. A misplay in the outfield allowed both runners to score and tie the game. Haley scored all the way from second on Dylan Luther’s infield single and Ben Friday added an RBI single after Luther stole second.
Medford got two hits but couldn’t score in the ninth and the game ended with Pittsville’s Justin Rayburn making a nice sliding catch to rob Roy Stinson of a hit.
Medford outhit Pittsville 13-10. Trent Klemm was three for five. Woebbeking tripled with two outs in the fourth and scored on Ryan Paul’s single. Turner doubled to score Paul and give the Moondogs a 4-3 lead at the time. Peyton Gilles was two for five with a ninth-inning double.
Gavin Fuchs pitched three innings, allowing five hits and four runs. Woebbeking covered the last five, allowing four runs, two earned, on five hits. He struck out six and walked three.
In the division’s other game of the weekend, Tomahawk Saturday night, the host Titans shut out Spirit 14-0, keeping the Twins winless at 0-7. Tomahawk won its last two league games to finish 2-5.
