game, is a potential regional ….

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.