WBA FINALS - Osceola escapes jam, goes on to win it all; Osprey beats Bay City

WBA FINALS

There was no one the Rib Lake Osprey wanted at the plate in a ninth-inning, basesloaded situation than Steve Mann during their Wisconsin Baseball Association tournament semifinal game Saturday evening.

But after four hits, including two solo homers, the Osceola Braves finally found a way to retire the Osprey’s clean-up hitter when his grounder off reliever Michael Meadows resulted in a game-ending and seasonending double play in a 6-3 defeat at Whittlesey’s Mike Roiger Stadium.

Rib Lake, who trailed since Osceola’s fiverun fifth inning broke a 1-1 tie, closed the gap on Mann’s home runs. The first was a nodoubt, towering blast to leftfield right after Osceola’s go-ahead rally in the fifth. The second homer off Osceola starter Charlie Tronrud was more of a line drive that just snuck over the leftfield fence to lead off the bottom of the eighth.

After the Braves stranded two runners in the top of the ninth, Rib Lake made one lastditch effort to get into Sunday’s Division B state championship game as Meadows took over for Tronrud.

Pinch-hitter Jon Dallmann lined a single the opposite way that just eluding a diving attempt by leftfielder Will Jensen. Joe Frombach re-entered the game to run for Dallmann and Bryant Konieczny was hit by a pitch to bring the tying run to the plate in Levi Ewan.

Ewan gave one a ride, driving it deep to centerfield, but Osceola’s Aaron Schmidt made a leaping grab to rob Ewan of extra bases and, as it turned out, probably save the game for Braves.

After a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position, Jeff Ziembo walked to load the bases for Mann. He took a borderline high strike and fouled off a pitch before knocking a two-hop grounder right to second baseman Lucas Severson. He flipped the ball to shortstop Stuart Hellie for the force on Ziembo and Hellie’s throw to first was perfect.

Osceola, the fourth seed in the eight-team B Division tournament, went on to defeat third-seeded and St. Croix Valley League rival Elmwood 11-6 in Sunday’s title game at Whittlesey. Rib Lake, who went 7-0 to win the Dairyland League’s Small Division this summer, finished 8-1.

A tight 1-1 game turned on one key call in the top of the fifth. Nick Carlson and Meadows started the inning with back-to-back doubles to break the tie, but Konieczny came back with consecutive strikeouts to get Rib Lake an out away from escaping the inning with minimal damage. The Osprey thought they got the third out when Severson grounded, but catcher’s interference was called, giving Severson first base and extending the inning.

Two pitches later, Hellie yanked a drive to right that just cleared the fence for a backbreaking three-run homer to make it 5-1. Osceola wasn’t done there. Austin Almlie doubled, Tronrud walked and reliever Drew Hauschild walked Schmidt to load the bases. Carlson’s single scored another run, but centerfielder Austin Ewan gunned down Tronrud by plenty at home plate to finally end the inning.

The game’s first runs were both scored in the third. Jensen hit an RBI single for Osceola in the top half after the Braves loaded the bases with two outs and no one on. Rib Lake loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half and got a run-scoring single from Austin Edwards, but Osceola caught Mann too far off third base on the play to get a big second out and limited the damage to that one run.

Tronrud got the win. In eight innings, he allowed three runs on 10 hits. He struck out seven, didn’t walk a batter and hit one.

Konieczny went 4.2 innings, striking out five, walking three and allowing nine hits and six runs, two of which were earned. Hauschild allowed just one hit in 3.2 innings with two strikeouts and four walks. Ziembo got the last two outs in the ninth. Ziembo also went two for four at the plate.

Carlson and Hellie had two hits apiece for Osceola, who beat Norwalk 5-2 in its quarterfinal game Saturday afternoon.

Rib Lake 6, Bay City 3

Two insurance runs in the eighth inning wound up being big for Rib Lake in its quarterfinal game, providing the final margin in a 6-3 win over eighth-seeded Bay City Saturday morning.

The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but was postponed as a pre-game downpour made Tannery Creek Park’s field unplayable.

The Osprey took the lead with a four-run third-inning rally and never let it go, but the Bombers made things at least a little tense by scoring all of their runs in the last two innings.

Bay City got a two-out double by Keegan Byrne that scored the Bombers’ first run and another run scored on an errant throw to the cutoff man, pulling them within 4-2 in the eighth. Frombach, playing second base, caught a line drive hit by Thate Peterson to end the inning there.

The Osprey greeted Bay City reliever Derek Ulvenes with back-to-back doubles by Ziembo and Mann to score their first run of the eighth. Seth Mudgett’s two-out hit scored pinch-runner Dawson Hauschild from third for a 6-2 lead.

Bay City kept pushing in the ninth. Ulvenes hit a leadoff single, Ethan Brunkow reached on an error and Logan Vogel singled to drive in Ulvenes and bring the tying run to the plate with still no one out.

But Edwards dug in to finish his complete game. He struck out Max Langer and Asher Bee and got leadoff hitter Anthony Madsen to pop out to end it. Edwards allowed just six hits and two earned runs while striking out nine, walking two and hitting one.

Vogel, who shut out Whittlesey 1-0 on Aug. 11 to put Bay City in the Finals tournament, retired six of the first seven Osprey he faced until running into trouble in the third. Luke Blomberg drew a leadoff walk, Frombach reached on an error and Konieczny walked to load the bases. Levi Ewan’s sacrifice fly scored Blomberg. Ziembo hit a potential double- play ball, but an error on the relay throw scored Frombach. Mann’s double drove in Ziembo and Mann scored on a wild pitch.

Vogel went seven innings and only allowed three hits. He struck out one and walked two. Ulvenes gave up four hits and three runs in his lone inning.

Ziembo and Mann both went two for four, while Blomberg and Mudgett added hits. Byrnes and Madsen both had two hits for the Bombers.

Rib Lake second baseman Joe Frombach gets the baseball a split-second too late as Bay City’s Ethan Brunkow slides under his attempted tag and gets to the base on a ninth-inning error during the Osprey’s 6-3 WBA quarterfinal win Saturday morning. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Rib Lake’s Austin Edwards fires a fastball during the eighth inning of the Osprey’s 6-3 win over Bay City Saturday morning. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS