On the bubble, Woodticks get a quality victory

INTERWALD 18, WAUSAU 9

The Interwald Woodticks could be in a fight to be one of the final teams included in the Wisconsin Baseball Association’s tournament field that will be announced after this weekend’s games.

They got a big win to add to their argument for getting in on Sunday by outscoring the short-handed Wausau River Hawks 18-9 in the first of two games played that afternoon at Tannery Creek Parkway.

Wausau lost the second game as well, 9-2 to Rib Lake, to fall to 7-4 in the Division A standings of the Dairyland League. Interwald finished divisional play at 6-6, good for fifth place and a home game this coming weekend against the Tomahawk Titans, who went 3-9 in Division B this summer.

That Dairyland League crossover game will be held in Rib Lake and was tentatively set for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday as of mid-week.

Wausau jumped ahead 2-0 on an Interwald error and hits by Mike Doescher and Adam Bever in the top of the first but by the end of the second, the River Hawks found themselves down 11-2.

Starting pitcher Reese Vold could not find the strike zone and retired just one of nine batters he faced. He walked six batters, hit one and allowed a run-scoring single to James Holliday as Interwald went up 5-2.

A six-run second-inning rally against Doescher started with singles by David Fliehs and Matt Mohr. A dropped pop-up hit by Jeff Borman brought in Fliehs and Jake Borman’s hit-and-run single scored Mohr. After Logan Blomberg walked to load the bases, Holliday singled in two runs, walks to Randy Raasch and Dalton Strebig pushed across another and a fielder’s choice hit by Fliehs drove in the sixth run of the inning.

Wausau didn’t go away quietly and made things interesting. Jordan Huehnerfuss tripled in a run and he scored on Bever’s single to make it 12-5 in the fifth. In the top of the sixth, the River Hawks loaded the bases with one out and got a two-run single from Doescher and a two-run double from Huehnerfuss to close within 12-9.

Carter Scheithauer relieved starter Peter Devine and slammed the door on the comeback, getting a groundout and a strikeout to end the inning. He pitched 3.2 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and three hits allowed.

Interwald answered Wausau’s rally with three runs of its own in the bottom of the sixth, aided by three Wausau errors. Holliday hit another RBI single in the seventh, while Fliehs hit an RBI double and Mohr drove in the final run with a ground ball.

Devine got the win, though Wausau got 11 hits and nine runs against him. Seven runs were earned. He struck out four, walked one and hit one. Holliday and Mohr each had three of Interwald’s 13 hits.

Doescher wound up pitching 6.2 innings for Wausau and allowed 13 runs and 11 hits. Nine of the runs were earned.

Wausau lost 4-2 on Tuesday to division champion Everest, which dropped the River Hawks to the third- place Dairyland League crossover game at Merrill this weekend.