Pirates clobber Clear Lake; loss is good prep for final at Thorp
The Gilman Pirates scored eight firstinning runs and coasted to a 15-0 WIAA Division 5 regional semifinal win over Clear Lake on June 9 in a game they hoped served as the perfect playoff icebreaker for their young squad.
Ice breaking, of course, was pretty easy in the 90-degree heat in Gilman that afternoon.
Addy Warner retired all but one batter in the four-inning game, with the exception coming on a third-inning error. It was her second consecutive mini no-hitter. She had thrown a five-inning perfect game at Colby-Abbotsford the night before. Warner struck out 11. The only out not recorded by strikeout was a first-inning fly ball to rightfielder Jayda Rosemeyer by Warrior Kallie Barthman.
Offensively, the Pirates weren’t going to be stopped by the subpar pitching and defense offered by the 2-10 Warriors.
“This helps the younger kids realize how we can do it,” said Warner, Gilman’s only senior. “Especially with batting. We timed that first slow pitcher. It’s so hard to time up a slow pitcher. I’m glad that we did. It got their confidence up.”
“We’re asking freshmen to play like seniors,” head coach Brian Phelps said. “Realistically we’re asking our sophomores, who are in essence freshmen, to play like seniors. Our expectations are still up there, and I just got done telling them how proud I am of this team and how much they’ve grown in one year. I’m very proud of everybody and Addy’s leadership. Our juniors have done a nice job with that. A lot of times you can see this gap with those younger kids. They just all pulled together. They’ve been a nice team.”
“There’s not a lot of kids on the team,” Warner said. “You have to (pull together). You can have these segregated groups and split because there’s not that many of us.”
Clear Lake opened with soft-tossing Emily Hadac and the Pirates, while having to do some adjusting in the batter’s box, wasted no time putting the game out of reach.
Tychelle Duellman bunted for a leadoff hit, stole two bases and scored when the Warriors dropped a fly ball hit by Gracie Tallier. Tallier stole second and moved to third on a groundout by Madisyn James. Warner then crushed a 2-0 offering from Hadac, depositing it well over the fence in left-center for a 3-0 lead.
Hannah Vick singled through the right side, Bryn Hendricks walked and Tatum Weir blooped a single into shallow left to load the bases. Jayda Rosemeyer’s groundout scored a run. An error on a ball hit by Ava Warner drove in two. Duellman walked, Tallier singled in one and James singled in another for an 8-0 lead.
The Warriors turned to senior pitcher Julia McIntire in the second and she calmed things down for a bit, pitching a scoreless second and allowing two runs in the third on three walks and a couple of wild pitches.
Gilman got to her in the fourth, however, and ended it by reaching a 15-run margin.
Weir and Rosemeyer walked and Ava Warner loaded the bases by hitting a squibber that died out in front of the plate and beating the throw to first. Duellman beat out an infield hit to score Weir. A groundout by James scored Rosemeyer. Wild pitches scored two more and Hendricks ended it with a solid RBI single up the middle.
“We came in, took care of business and we’ve reached another regional final,” Phelps said. “We’ll see what happens down at Thorp.”
Second-seeded Thorp (13-9) hosted the third-seeded Pirates (13-8) Wednesday in the regional final. The Cardinals, coached by former Gilman teacher and softball assistant Kurt Rhyner, advanced by accepting a forfeit from seventh- seeded Bruce.
The sectional rounds are set for June 21 and 23. The June 23 final will be hosted by Athens. Wednesday’s winner will face either fourth-seeded Flambeau (88) or top-seeded McDonell Central (19-5) in Monday’s semifinal.
“They don’t have a dominant pitcher, but they’re very well coached,” Phelps said of Thorp. They’re very sound defensively. They’re very fundamentally sound. They play the game well. Kurt’s a great coach. I think it’s going to be a really good game. Hopefully we’ll have everybody in place and go make some plays.”
If Warner can continue her recent roll, anything can happen in this sectional bracket.
“In the past couple of games it has definitely clicked,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because it’s the end of the season or something. I’m like OK, I guess I’ll take us all the way, right? We’ll start here.”
Edgar 7, Gilman 0
In a late addition to the regular-season schedule, Gilman fell at Edgar 7-0, recording just three hits off Edgar’s freshman ace Makayla Wirkus. “That game was a little bit of shell shock for us,” Phelps said. “We haven’t seen a pitcher that fast since the Grantsburg game (May 8).”
Despite the loss, Phelps said seeing that kind of pitching, especially after what they saw against Clear Lake, should be a benefit heading into the Thorp game.
“We told the girls after the game it was good to have that game,” Phelps said. “We needed to see some good pitching.”
Edgar took a commanding 5-0 lead with three runs in the third and two more in the fourth. The Wildcats, who finished 14-7 overall, tacked on two more in the sixth. They only had five hits and were aided by four Gilman errors.
Addy Warner struck out 12 and walked only one.
“We need to make some plays behind her,” Phelps said. “They played a good game. They outhit us, moved more runners and made more plays.”
Duellman, Weir and Rosemeyer had Gilman’s hits.
Gilman’s Madisyn James smacks an RBI single during her second at-bat in the Pirates’ eight-run first inning against Clear Lake.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
