Redmen roll past conference rivals to get to regional final

WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL

The Rib Lake Redmen questioned getting the third seed in their WIAA Division 4 baseball regional and they started to prove their point Tuesday by earning a 5-0 win at second-seeded Athens in the semifinal round.

A day earlier, it looked questionable if Jordan Yanko would play after tweaking his back, but the senior leftfielder came through by going two for three with a triple and the defensive play of the game. Three of the team’s four runs batted in came from the middle of the order or lower and Logan Blomberg and Michael Borchardt combined on the two-hit shutout.

The win sent Rib Lake (11-7) to the regional final Wednesday at top-seeded Thorp (9-8), who handled fourth-seeded Owen-Withee (5-12) in its regional semifi nal Tuesday. The final was played after this week’s deadline for The Star News.

The winner advances to the Gillett-Suring sectional on Tuesday with semifinals set for 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. with the championship to follow at 4 p.m.

Athens, who finished a game behind Rib Lake in the conference standings, ended the season at 9-8.

“We played pretty well,” Iverson said of Tuesday’s win, which gave Rib Lake a 2-1 edge in the season series with their Marawood North rivals. “We came up with some clutch hits, but we struck out too many times. We had our opportunities but struck out with runners in scoring position a few times. But otherwise, Logan pitched well. He had six walks, but four of them were with full counts. So he was right there, he just didn’t finish those off. Athens did a nice job of fouling off some pitches.”

Offensively, Rib Lake struck immediately in the top of the first with Sam Gumz hitting an 0-2 pitch for a double and scoring on Logan Blomberg’s base hit. Yanko singled and Andrew Wudi walked to load the bases for Jackson Blomberg, who was hit by a pitch to drive in a run for a 2-0 lead. The Redmen, though, left the bases loaded.

Yanko tripled and scored on Jake Matyka’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 in the top of the third. The bottom half featured one of the game’s key swings. Two walks sandwiched around an error loaded the bases with one out for the top two hitters in Athens’ order. Brooks Kraus hit a liner to left that Yanko made an outstanding catch on. Athens failed to tag at third base, leaving all runners in place. Logan Blomberg then got Cooper Diedrich to

ground out to Matyka at first base to end the threat.

“That was huge, to have their top hitters up with the bases loaded and we held them scoreless,” Iverson said.

Rib Lake tacked on single runs in each of the next two innings. Dominic Quednow hit a double to deep right and scored on Dalen Gebauer’s single to right-center to make it 4-0 in the fourth. Yanko walked, moved to third on Wudi’s double and scored on a wild pitch in the fifth.

“We didn’t even know if (Yanko) was going to play,” Iverson said. “He was a hurting unit. He’s five for his last six with four extra-base hits and made the play of the game for us and added two stolen bases. He did a nice job for us.

“The top of the order, one through three struggled, but five through nine did a nice job,” he added. “Dalen Gebauer laid down a nice bunt and had a big base hit. Dom’s been hitting the ball better. He hit the ball hard three times against Prentice. Andrew Wudi has been a tough out. Jake Matyka has been stroking the ball well for us. We’ve really picked up the hitting in our last four or five games.”

Logan Blomberg was on pace to get through six innings, but the Blue Jays finally were able to run up his pitch count and knock him off the mound an out early. Michael Borchardt got a strikeout to strand two runners and finish off the sixth. Then, the goal became keeping Borchardt under 30 pitches so he could go against Thorp. It got close after a walk and a single to start the inning, but the junior got a pop-up and two ground balls after that to preserve the shutout and his ability to pitch Wednesday.

Gumz, Logan Blomberg, Matyka, Wudi, Quednow and Gebauer all finished with one hit apiece.

Rib Lake last faced Thorp last May and lost 6-3 in a good regular-season nonconference game. Thorp was a combined team with Gilman last year.

“I think it will be a really good matchup,” Iverson said.

Rib Lake 15, Prentice 1

As expected, Rib Lake had little trouble with sixth-seeded Prentice (1-19) in its regional opener Thursday, burying their Marawood North rivals 15-1 in five innings.

Rib Lake got two gift runs to start the game in the bottom of the first when Gumz reached on a dropped third strike, stole second, scored on Yanko’s hit. Yanko later scored on a wild pitch.

The big inning was the second. The nine-run rally started with Quednow reaching on an error. He later scored on another error. Logan Blomberg hit a two-run single in the inning, Yanko hit an RBI double, Wudi was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Jackson Blomberg drove in two runs with a base hit and Quednow added another two-run single.

The total damage for the inning included two errors, two walks, a hit batter and four hits and had Rib Lake leading 11-1 at the time.

Rib Lake finished the scoring with a four-run bottom of the third. With one on and one out, Yanko laced an RBI double. Wudi walked and Jackson Blomberg hit an infield single that scored Yanko and Quednow added to his big night with a two-run triple.

Quednow finished two for three with the triple and four runs batted in. Yanko drove in three runs while going three for three with two doubles. Jackson Blomberg was two for three with three RBIs and Logan Blomberg had a hit and two runs batted in.

Logan Blomberg got the win, pitching the first three innings in the five-inning contest. He struck out seven, walked one and allowed two hits and an unearned run. Borchardt struck out two batters in the fourth and Jackson Blomberg struck out one and walked one in the fifth.

Jake Matyka is ready to hit during Thursday’s win over Prentice.EMILY GOJMERAC/THE STAR NEWS