Championship hopes die in Abby-Colby’s eight-run sixth

RIB LAKE BASEBALL

8-0 win at Phillips secures second place in the North

While the championship is no longer possible, the Rib Lake baseball team still has a good shot to secure second place outright in the Marawood North after earning an 8-0 shutout victory at Phillips on Monday.

Logan Blomberg covered the first six innings in the shutout victory, collecting seven strikeouts while allowing just two hits and two walks. Michael Borchardt loaded the bases with walks in the seventh, but he also got three strikeouts to keep the Loggers off the board.

“Logan pitched really well,” Rib Lake head coach Dick Iverson said.

The win puts Rib Lake at 6-3 in the North Division, good for a tie with Chequamegon. Both teams finish North play today, Thursday, at 4:45 p.m. Rib Lake hosts its rematch with Phillips, while Chequamegon is at 5-4 Athens, who it beat Tuesday 11-10.

Abbotsford-Colby (8-1) clinched the outright championship on Tuesday with a 23-1 drubbing of winless Prentice.

In Monday’s win, Rib Lake jumped ahead of the Loggers (2-7) quickly with a four-run rally in the top of the first. Sam Gumz was hit by a pitch, and Borchardt and Blomberg followed with base hits to score the first run. Run number two was unearned and Jake Matyka capped the inning with a two-run single.

A two-run fourth extended the lead and Rib Lake tacked on a couple more to get back to .500 overall at 6-6.

Blomberg was two for three as was Matyka, who finished with three RBIs. He added a run-scoring double. Borchardt and Brady Heiser had hits for the Redmen.

After tonight’s rematch with the Loggers, Rib Lake hosts Stratford Friday at 4:45 p.m. in a tough Marawood Conference crossover. Next week’s schedule includes a non-conference home game with Owen-Withee Tuesday and another one May 19 against a Columbus Catholic team that is leading the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference.

Newman 11, Rib Lake 4

In a Marawood crossover Friday, the Redmen gave up five second-inning runs to fall behind 6-1 and never recovered in an 11-4 loss to Newman Catholic in Wausau.

The Cardinals widened the lead even more with a four-run fifth that made it 11-2 before Rib Lake got two runs in the seventh to close the gap somewhat.

Nate Klement allowed nine hits in the complete-game victory for Newman. He only struck out two and walked three.

Jackson Blomberg took the loss with walks being his biggest nemesis. He issued nine in 3.2 innings. Andrew Wudi was charged with four earned runs in the fifth on four hits. Dom Quednow pitched 1.2 scoreless innings with two strikeouts and a walk. He allowed two hits.

Matyka had another solid night at the plate, going three for four with a run driven in. Logan Blomberg was two for three.

James Bates was two for two, including a homer for Newman.

Rib Lake’s hopes of a Marawood North title share went down in flames during a disastrous sixth inning in Thursday’s 13-3 home loss to Abbotsford-Colby.

The Falcons scored eight times in the frame to turn a tight 2-1 game into a 10-1 blowout. They tacked on three more in the top of the seventh to assure themselves of this year’s North Division championship.

For five innings, the defenses and pitchers Borchardt and Mateo Lopez controlled much of the game. In fact, had it not been for two bad breaks to start the third, the Redmen easily could have been in the lead.

A grounder hit by Abbotsford-Colby’s Evan Reis hit first base just before Ma- tyka fielded it, leading to an infield single and, with one down, Borchardt stumbled while fielding Lopez’s roller, giving Lopez another infield single. Both runners later scored on Payton Schreiber’s twoout single to center.

Rib Lake countered in the bottom half when, with two down, Jordan Yanko’s hard-hit ground ball was snagged by diving Abbotsford-Colby second baseman Nano Lopez, who then hurried the throw to first and missed his target, allowing Gumz, who had reached on a fielder’s choice, to score from second.

As bad innings typically do, the top of sixth started on a Rib Lake error on a high pop-up hit by Schreiber. Jaxon Polivka bunted for a hit and Shreiber’s pinch-runner, Preston Bunkelman, scooted to third on a fly ball hit to center by Blake Bargender. He scored on a single by Nano Lopez. Borchardt then gave Rib Lake a chance to minimize the damage by striking out Nick Olvera.

That, however, did not happen. Reis, Abbotsford-Colby’s numbernine hitter dumped a single into shallow right-center to score two more runs and make it 5-1. JV Castillo walked, Mateo Lopez reached on an error to score a run and Carlos Lara walked to load the bases.

Wudi relieved Borchardt and was greeted by Schreiber’s two-run double. Polivka singled in two more before Bargender finally popped out to end the inning.

Wudi reached on an error, was bunted to second by Jackson Blomberg and scored on Matyka’s single in the bottom of the sixth.

But the visitors got another two-run single from Schreiber, giving him six RBIs for the game, to highlight another rally in the seventh. Rib Lake’s last run scored on a balk.

Mateo Lopez pitched 6.1 solid innings for the winners, striking out eight, walking two and hitting two, while allowing just four hits and three runs, one of which was earned. Schreiber was three for five and Polivka was four for five.

Borchardt went 5.2 innings and deserved a better fate. Only two of the nine runs charged to him were earned. He allowed nine hits and two walks while striking out two. He had one of Rib Lake’s four hits. Logan Blomberg, Matyka and Heiser had the others.

Michael Borchardt