One win short

WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL SECTIONAL

Late-season surge carries Rib Lake all the way to sectional final

The Rib Lake Redmen made amends for what they’ll tell you is the last bad game they played with a 6-1 win over Newman Catholic in the first semifinal at Tuesday’s WIAA Division 4 Gillett-Suring baseball sectional, but state dream was busted by Columbus Catholic in the final, who clinched the school’s first WIAA state appearance with a 5-0 win.

Entering the day as the favorite to get to state, the Dons (20-3) blasted Lena 11-2 in the other semifinal before holding Rib Lake scoreless in the championship behind a two-hit shutout thrown by right-hander Blake Jakobi, who struck out five, walked two and had errorless defense played behind him.

Rib Lake starter Michael Borchardt held the Dons scoreless through three innings, but got into some early trouble in the fourth. He limited the damage to two runs, but that wound up being all Columbus Catholic needed. Brock Bennington’s two-run homer highlighted a three-run fifth that put the game away.

“We gave it a shot,” head coach Dick Iverson said after his team finished the season at 13-8 while winning eight of its last 10 games.

While the Redmen finished with just two hits, Iverson pointed to two near misses that could’ve made the final outcome a little different.

Scoreless with two down in the top of the third, Rib Lake’s leadoff hitter Sam Gumz hit a drive off Jakobi that appeared headed for the leftfield corner and possibly even the fair pole. But the Dons’ leftfielder Xane Adler caught up to it and made a tough catch one step from the fence to end the inning.

In the sixth, Dalen Gebauer lined a single to left-center for Rib Lake’s first hit and Gumz followed with a sharply-hit grounder that, instead of being a double to the rightfield corner, was gloved by Columbus Catholic’s Grant Olson, who stepped on the bag and threw to second base to complete an easy double play. Borchardt followed with Rib Lake’s second hit of the day, but Logan Blomberg flied out to left to end the inning.

“That ground ball Sammy hit, if the guy’s not holding Dalen on, it’s a double,” Iverson said. “Sammy hit that one down the line that got caught that was inches away from a double. When we walked a guy and then hit one to start the inning, that was when we got into trouble.”

That trouble Iverson mentioned was in the bottom of the fourth. Jakobi, the Dons’ number-two hitter in the order, drew the walk and Bennington was hit. The Redmen got an out at first on Cole Timmler’s ground out to Logan Blomberg at short, but that came after a long discussion by the umpires after first baseman Jake Matyka bobbled the ball momentarily after he made the tag.

With the infield drawn in, Cy Becker bounced a single up the middle to score Jakobi and Bennington to put Columbus Catholic on the board.

Number-nine hitter Nathan Nemitz started the fifth with a double that just eluded the diving Gumz in centerfield and Emmitt Konieczny reached on an error. A balk was called on Borchardt on a third-to-first fake, scoring Nemitz. After Jakobi struck out, Bennington unloaded a no-doubt blast well over the fence in left.

Borchardt, who threw 16 pitches in the semifinal, went five innings, only allowed four hits. He struck out two and walked two. Four of the five runs were earned. Jackson Blomberg worked the sixth, striking out two and walking one.

Nemitz had two of the Dons’ four hits. The others, by Bennington and Becker, were the big ones.

While the loss was disappointing, Iverson was pleased with the way the team finished the year.

“The last three weeks we played really good baseball,” he said. “We really didn’t have a bad game over that span. The only loss we had was to Marathon. Even that one, we had two guys missing and it was 2-1 going into the sixth.”

The team loses four seniors it relied heavily upon during the year in Logan Blomberg, Gumz, Jordan Yanko and Matyka. Borchardt and Gebauer were the only juniors on this year’s squad, making this summer of Legion ball an important one for next year’s juniors, sophomores and incoming freshmen to the program.

“I told the kids they’ve got one day off and then we have a doubleheader with Medford on Thursday,” Iverson said. “It starts up again.”

Rib Lake 6, Newman 1

In the morning opener Tuesday, Rib Lake jumped on some defensive miscues by Newman in the top of the first inning by scoring three runs and never looked back in a 6-1 win that avenged an 11-4 loss suffered to the Cardinals in Wausau on May 6.

“I know we should have won the first time,” Yanko said. “It was our fourth game that week.”

“We didn’t play well that time, but I thought now we’ve been playing our best baseball of the year and we matched up with them very well,” Logan Blomberg said.

The Cardinals did not see either of Rib Lake’s top two pitchers in that matchup a month ago, part of why this outcome was much different.

Logan Blomberg got through six innings before hitting his 100-pitch limit and collected 10 strikeouts, walked four and allowed five hits and one earned run. He made some big pitches when he needed them to get out of a couple of mid-game jams.

A key moment came in the bottom of the fifth with Rib Lake leading 5-1. With two outs, Newman loaded the bases with an error and two walks. Just when it seemed like the senior pitcher was tiring, he struck out Nate Klement and Mason Prey to end the threat just like that.

“The first batter I tried to make some off-speed pitches,” Blomberg said. “The second guy was struggling to hit the fastball so I threw him three high ones and he swung at two of them and it worked. I don’t think a whole lot when I throw.”

The big three-run first started when Gumz was hit by a Nate Klement pitch. Borchardt then hit a fly ball to right- center that Newman’s Josh Klement and Noah Martin let drop. Gumz still should have been an easy out at second, but the throw to the infield was wide, so Borchardt wound up with a single. Logan Blomberg singled to load the bases with no outs. After Yanko struck out, Jake Matyka hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Gumz. Martin dropped Andrew Wudi’s fly to right, allowing Borchardt to score. With Blomberg at third and Wudi at first, the Redmen used some baserunning trickery as Wudi intentionally got caught in a rundown and stayed in it long enough to allow Blomberg to steal home.

“We’ve been practicing that the whole last week,” Blomberg said “(Iverson) said we might not have used it yet, but we’re going to. He was right. It worked out for us. I just sit there and I wait for (Iverson) to say go. That’s it. I don’t have to worry about anything. He knows more than I do.”

While Rib Lake lost the coin flip and was the visiting team for the game, the seniors said that may have worked in the team’s favor as it gave them the chance to create early momentum.

“That was big,” Blomberg said. “I’d almost rather be the away team because you can do that.”

“I always like starting out with runs,” Yanko said. “It helps a lot to get up.”

Yanko came up big in the top of the fifth. With Rib Lake leading 3-1, Borchardt singled with one out and Logan Blomberg walked. After strikeouts in his first two plate appearances, Yanko drove a 3-2 pitch from Josh Klement to the fence in right-center on one hop to score both runners and widen the lead.

“I was happy,” Yanko said. “It made me feel a lot better to finally get one. Just staying alive and not striking out again was all I was thinking.”

“I was on first base and off the bat and I was looking at Mr. I and he was screaming, go!” Blomberg said. “Usually we turn and wait for it to drop, so I knew he hit it well.”

Jackson Blomberg singled in the sixth and eventually scored on a pinch-hit sacrifi ce fly to close the scoring. Borchardt closed things out by retiring three of four batters he faced in the bottom of the seventh, the last of which came on a looking strikeout of Prey.

Borchardt finished three for four at the plate and scored twice. Logan Blomberg, Yanko, Jackson Blomberg and Dominic Quednow had one hit apiece.

Nate Klement took the loss while going three innings for Newman (11-10).

Rib Lake’s Jordan Yanko follows through on a swing that produces a two-run triple in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s 6-1 sectional semifinal win over Newman Catholic.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Rib Lake’s Logan Blomberg slides around the tag attempt from Newman Catholic’s James Bates and swipes home plate at the front end of a successful first-inning double steal with teammate Andrew Wudi.PHOTOS BY MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS