RIB LAKE SOFTBALL - Redmen rally for win in title game of tournament

RIB LAKE SOFTBALL

The Rib Lake Redmen faced better competition in each game, played a little better in each game and came home with a 3-0 record and the championship in their bracket of the Danny Mac Softball Classic, played Saturday and Sunday in Rhinelander’s Hodag Dome.

Senior Leah Chmielowiec put the finishing touch on a memorable title game Sunday morning, hitting a walk-off RBI single to beat Shiocton 10-9 in a back-and-forth battle. The Chiefs led 5-2 after an inning and a half, Rib Lake rallied for a 7-5 lead only to give up four in the top of the seventh to trail 9-7.

But the Redmen came back one last time in the bottom half to win it.

“I told the girls after the game that I would’ve been OK if we would’ve come out on the bottom end of it because it was a backand- forth game,” Rib Lake head coach Craig Scheithauer said. “We need to learn how to play in close games and battle back when being behind and we did that a couple of different times. It was nice to win that one. Looking at our schedule we’re going to play in plenty of those kinds of game.

“It was nice to bring home some hardware.”

The Redmen, who hit well in all three games they played in the dome, banged out 15 hits in the title game. Number-nine hitter Kara Kennedy got a big one, leading off the bottom of the seventh with a double over the head of Shiocton’s leftfielder.

“Kara hadn’t had a hit all weekend, just had trouble staying back,” Scheithauer said. “She was putting the ball in play, just nothing hard other than a ball that hit the ceiling for an out. That was a big hit at the time.”

Addison Gumz lined out to the shortstop, but Tahlia Scheithauer was hit by a pitch and Avery Niemi walked to load the bases. Tessa Weik singled in Kennedy, Josie Scheithauer knocked inTahlia Scheithauer with the tying run and Chmielowiec’s hit brought home Niemi to end it.

“We made big plays at the right time, made big pitches at the right time and got big hits at the right time,” coach Scheithauer said.

Two of those key plays took place in the fourth. In the top half, Kennedy, who was playing in rightfield, backed up an errant throw that got past Josie Scheithauer at first base and threw out the Shiocton hitter at second base, leading to a scoreless inning that kept Rib Lake’s deficit at 5-2 at the time.

Then in the bottom half, Kiana Dallmann drew a leadoff walk. When Madilyn Blomberg grounded to second, Dallmann smartly backed up, avoiding a tag from the Chiefs’ second baseman, who then panicked and threw wildly to first, putting two runners on with no outs.

Another Shiocton error later in the inning on a ball hit by Addison Gumz drove in a run. After Tahlia Scheithauer singled and Niemi hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out, another error on a ball hit by Weik drove in a run and Josie Scheithauer knocked in two with a base hit for a 6-5 lead.

“Kiana executed that just right,” Craig Scheithauer said. “That was the play of the game.”

Josie Scheithauer hit a two-run double in the first inning for Rib Lake and Dallmann hit an RBI single in the sixth. Josie Scheithauer finished four for five with five RBIs, while Tahlia Scheithauer, Chmielowiec, Dallmann, Niemi and Weik had two hits apiece.

Weik was Rib Lake’s third starting pitcher of the weekend and in her first varsity pitching appearance went 5.1 innings, allowing six hits, five earned runs and two walks while striking out three. Josie Scheithauer got the relief win even though Shiocton rallied for its four runs, three of which were earned, in the top of the seventh. She allowed five hits and struck out three.

Semifinal win

In Saturday night’s semifinal round, the Redmen strung together rallies in each of the first four innings and rolled to a 15-5 win over Goodman-Pembine in five innings.

Tahlia Scheithauer went the distance in the circle, allowing five hits and two earned runs while walking five and striking out six. Rib Lake led 15-1 before the Patriots scored four in the bottom of the fifth to nearly extend the game.

Weik and Chmielowiec had RBI singles in the bottom of the first, then Rib Lake put up a four-spot in the bottom of the second, highlighted by a three-run homer from Weik. An RBI groundout by Niemi and Weik’s RBI single made it 8-1 through three.

A six-run fourth put the game away. Tahlia Scheithauer hit a two-run single, a run scored on a misplayed fly ball hit by Weik, Josie Scheithauer drove in one on a fielder’s choice, Chmielowiec hit an RBI single and Kennedy knocked the last run in on a fielder’s choice.

Weik was three for three with five RBIs in the win. Tahlia Scheithauer, Chmielowiec and Gumz each had two of Rib Lake’s 12 hits. Gumz scored three runs. The Redmen drew nine walks, struck out just three times and stole five bases. Tahlia Scheithauer had three RBIs.

Rib Lake 16, Spencer 0

The Redmen blew game one of the tournament wide open by scoring 15 fourthinning runs in what wound up being a 16-0 win over Spencer Saturday afternoon.

Rib Lake sent 21 hitters to the plate in its big inning and used 11 hits, four walks and some Rocket miscues to put an early end to the contest.

Josie Scheithauer went four for four and Weik was three for four to lead the offense, which finished with 15 hits overall.

Rib Lake actually had two big chances to break the game open before the fourth, but left the bases loaded in the second and third innings. The Redmen did get a run in the third on Dallmann’s bloop hit that fell just inside the line to score Weik, who started the rally with a two-out single.

“Before the fourth inning, I told the girls we were going to switch gears and try going to some small ball,” coach Scheithauer said. “We needed to start putting some balls on the ground. We were hitting popups and striking out. We needed to get balls on the ground and get them to move. We laid down some balls and once we got it going, everyone just kind of caught fire.”

The big inning started with Kennedy reaching on an error. Tahlia Scheithauer singled and Spencer didn’t record an out on Leah Chmielowiec’s fielder’s choice to load the bases. Niemi’s hit scored the first two runs of the inning and made it 3-0. Weik’s base hit scored a run as did Josie Scheithauer’s hit. Dallmann bunted for a hit to make it 6-0. Madilyn Blomberg walked to load the bases for Lily Butler, who singled in two runs.

Kennedy popped out for the first out of the inning, but Tahlia Scheithauer’s fly ball to left was dropped to plate two runs. Chmielowiec’s hit made it 11-0 and Niemi singled in a run. Weik singled to deep center and Josie Scheithauer’s grounder got through to score a run. Dallmann hit into an unassisted out at third for the second out of the inning, but Rib Lake kept things going with an infield hit by Blomberg and run-scoring walks by Butler, Kennedy and Tahlia Scheithauer.

Josie Scheithauer pitched all four innings, allowing two hits and striking out five. Dallmann added two hits for the Redmen.