A-C claims part of third Marawood title

For the third straight year, the Abby-Colby baseball team will hold at least part of the Marawood-North conference title. The club extended their win streak to eight with a victory over Rib Lake on Tuesday evening, a win that also ensured that they will be repeat champions. Add in two wins over conference rival Athens last week and the co-op now holds an 8-0 conference record while boasting an 11-2 overall record.

The Rib Lake Redmen have been the co-op’s biggest challenger for the top spot in the conference during their back-toback- to-back Marawood-North championships. The two teams shared the title in 2021 and Rib Lake placed second last year. Abby-Colby’s only conference loss last season came at the hands of Rib Lake.

2023 has shaped up similarly, with the undefeated Abby-Colby club sitting just ahead of the second-place Redmen heading into Tuesday evening’s game. Given that, it was fitting that the co-op claimed their piece of the Marawood-North title by defeating the team that has given them the most trouble over the past three seasons.

And while the Redmen didn’t make it easy on the co-op in their most recent contest, Abby-Colby continued their dominance this season over their conference opponents, never trailing in their 10-5 win.

The co-op jumped out to a 6-0 lead thanks to a four run second inning, but errors in the bottom of the third helped Rib Lake close the gap. Four unearned runs would come around to score in the bottom of the third for the Redmen, putting Abby-Colby’s early lead under threat.

The visitors walked a tight rope for the next three innings, holding off Rib Lake but scoring no runs themselves. A breakthrough in the top of the seventh finally gave the co-op some breathing room as they pushed across four more runs. A single run from the Redmen in the bottom of the inning was not enough to overcome the deficit and Abby-Colby came away with the win and the knowledge that they had, at least in part, completed their goal as repeat conference champions.

Starting pitcher JV Castillo was awarded the win after pitching five innings of three-hit ball. While four of Rib Lake’s five runs were surrendered under his watch, they were all unearned. The junior struck out four while walking six.

Mateo Lopez relieved Castillo in the sixth and struck out four in his two innings of work. He gave up one run on two hits and a base on balls.

Brandon Diedrich had two doubles and two RBIs to lead an offense that had five extra base hits. Payton Schreiber went 2-3 with a double and a RBI, Castillo drove in two with a triple and scored two runs and Carlos Lara had a two RBI night, going 1-2 from the plate with a double and two walks. Lopez, Blake Bargender, Jaxon Polivka, and Noah Schraufnagel all picked up hits as well.

5-4

The Abby-Colby squad held on to a 5-4 victory over Edgar in a Marawood crossover matchup last Friday. The visiting coop notched ten hits in the win, with each player in their lineup registering at least one.

The Marawood-North leaders never trailed, scoring the first run of the game in the third and adding three more over the course of the next two innings to take control.

Meanwhile, a combination of JV Castillo and Evan Reis on the mound held off the Wildcats offense for most of the evening. The Abby-Colby defense played a clean game behind their pitchers, committing no errors in the contest.

Castillo struck out eight batters across five innings of work, only surrendering three hits en route to his third win of the season. Six free passes issued to Edgar batters would be the junior’s biggest challenge to overcome, but he managed to keep the damage to a minimum, giving up single runs in the third and fourth innings.

Reis entered the game in relief and pitched two innings for the co-op. He struck out three and did not walk a batter. The Wildcats mounted a comeback effort in the bottom of the seventh, tagging Reis for two runs to cut the visitors’ lead to one, but the junior shut the door before Edgar could complete the rally.

The pair of pitchers also had a solid day at the plate, with Castillo knocking in two of the team’s five runs while scoring one himself and Reis notching the coop’s only extra base hit of the evening, an RBI double. He also scored a run.

First baseman Payton Schreiber went 2-3, driving in one run and scoring another. Blake Bargender also drove in a run for the co-op and Carlos Lara accounted for one run scored.

13-5

The co-op hosted the Athens Bluejays for a double-header last Thursday evening. In the first game of the series, Abby Colby survived a potentially devastating fourth inning comeback from Athens to eventually take the 13-5 victory over their Marawood-North opponents.

Abby-Colby was able to build out a solid 5-0 lead over the course of the first three innings. A two RBI double with two outs in the second from Evan Reis was the highlight of an offense that made the most of walks and hit batsmen to build their early advantage.

Mateo Lopez started on the mound for the home team and he and the co-op defense held Athens scoreless over the first three innings of play. The Jays threatened in the third by loading the bases, but a strikeout from Lopez ended the frame without any damage.

The fourth inning was a different story. A cavalcade of errors committed by the Abby-Colby defense gave Athens new life. Three runs would come around to score on Lopez, and while none were earned, it would chase the Abby-Colby starter from the game. Brandon Diedrich would come on in relief, but another error and a wild pitch would cause two more runs to come across the plate for the Bluejays, tying the game at 5-5.

A peculiar play would get the co-op out of the jam they had worked themselves into. With the bases loaded, Athens batter Ty Johnson believed he had taken ball four and started to move towards first. The Bluejays’ runners, seeing this, started to advance to the next station. However, the call from the umpire had been a strike and a heads-up play from Abby-Colby catcher Blake Bargender would catch the Athens’ runner stuck between home and third. Mateo Lopez, now playing third, would put down the tag to A/C

get the last out of the inning and leave the score tied at 5-5.

The co-op wasn’t out of the woods yet, however, as they would strand runners on second and third in the bottom half of the inning to leave the door open for Athens.

After a tumultuous fourth, Abby-Colby seemed to settle back into the game in the fifth. Diedrich would pitch a one-twothree top of the inning and give his team another opportunity to retake the lead in the bottom half of the frame.

Two more hit batsmen to start the rally eventually would come back to haunt the Bluejays. One scored on a wild throw to put the co-op up 6-5 and Reis came through once more for his team by delivering a RBI single to drive in the other. An error allowed him to score later in the inning and Abby-Colby left the fifth with an 8-5 advantage.

The co-op added five runs in the bottom of the sixth for good measure, with Reis and Jaxon Polivka delivering RBI singles and Diedrich driving in one on a sacrifice fly. Diedrich pitched his way through two more scoreless innings and the co-op cruised to a 13-5 win.

Diedrich got the win, going three-anda- third for the co-op in relief. He struck out six while walking two and only gave up one hit. Lopez did not factor into the decision, striking out five and walking three in his three-and-two-thirds innings of work. All five runs given to him were unearned.

Reis finished the day going 3-5 from the plate, driving in four runs and scoring once. He was the only Abby-Colby player with multiple hits, though Lopez, Polivka, JV Castillo, Payton Schreiber and Noah Schraufnagel each had one apiece.

The co-op showcased their speed by swiping nine bases in the first game on Thursday. Lopez, Diedrich, Castillo and Reis each had two stolen bases while pinch runner Jackson Snapp had one.

14-0

While Athens had made things interesting in the first matchup of the evening between the two squads, there was no such resistance in the second contest. Abby-Colby controlled the game on both sides of the ball, putting up 14 runs while only giving up one hit to the Bluejays’ lineup, delivering a 14-0 shutout.

An eight-run second inning all but decided the outcome of Thursday’s second game. Payton Schreiber’s RBI single got the co-op on the board and the runs would continue to come in for Abby-Colby. Polivka drove in another two at-bats later and a hit from Blake Bargender drove in two more to push their lead to five. Mateo Lopez and Carlos Lara got in on the action with RBI singles of their own and by the time the Bluejays managed to secure the third out of the inning, the co-op had bought themselves a comfortable 8-0 advantage.

The game was put out of reach in the third as the co-op scored six more runs, courtesy of the bats of Bargender, Bargender and Schreiber. A combination of Diedrich and Nano Lopez kept the Athens’ bats silent. Diedrich, working the first two innings for the co-op, did not allow a baserunner, striking out two in the process. Nano Lopez delivered three innings of one-hit ball after coming in to relieve the Abby-Colby starter. He struck out five and walked one while earning his second win of the season.

Schreiber and Bargender each ended the game with two hits and three RBIs. Mateo Lopez also grabbed two hits and a walk while driving in two, scoring three times and stealing three bases. Polivka scored a run while driving in one with his one hit, Lara ended the game with one hit and two runs driven in, and Nano Lopez went 1-3 with a run scored. Seniors Brandon Diedrich and Braxton Smith both went 1-1 with a run scored.

PERFECT CONNECTION -Jaxon Polivka makes contact in the second game against the Bluejays last Thursday. His hit scored the co-op’s second run of the game.STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD

QUICK RELEASE -JV Castillo fires the ball to first on a dribbler on the infielder against Athens.STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD